 Herder’s conception that the formation of moral character both is and ought to be a primary function of literature and art serves him as an important criterion for evaluating individual works. For example, when he observes in On the Effect that unlike earlier poetry modern poetry has typically lost this function, he means this as a serious criticism of modern poetry. And he applies this criterion as a ground for criticizing certain works by his friend Goethe that he considers to be immoral or amoral in content.