Johann Gottfried Herder was one of the central figures in 18th-century European intellectual history. As a philosopher and historian, a literary critic and theoretician, a poet, translator and educator, he was one of the pioneers of the Sturm and Drang movement as well as the mentor of the young Goethe in Strassburg. Included in this volume are a selection of his earlier works, including an essay on diligence in the study of several learned languages, fragments of a treatise on the ode and discussion of the Fatherland. Although Herder focuses on the state of German literature during the Enlightenment, he goes beyond literary criticism by basing his ideas on anthropological considerations within the boundaries of an established national identity. The editors of the text have specifically chosen works which anticipate most of Herder's ideas on aesthetics and philosophy in his later years.