One of the earliest discoveries of the pioneer students of “pre-romanticism” was Richard Hurd's Letters on Chivalry and Romance. Phelps and Beers, who discussed only the Letters and the Moral and Political Dialogues, considered Hurd to have been in whole-hearted revolt against neo-classical ideas. Later scholars, taking into account his earlier writings, found both in these works and the Letters themselves certain opinions which seemed conventionally neo-classic; he therefore came to be represented either as a classicist converted to romanticism or as a writer who always wavered between the two positions. In general, his criticism was considered to have been mixed and fluctuating. He was thought to have had no consistent position, but to be important insofar as he anticipated romantic views.