l, by sealing a certain cheap type of vulgarity with the national
stamp. One must, nevertheless, confess with regret that this type is
the embodiment of an "ideal" still only too commonly cherished in
America. The national type, I take it, is found in such characters as
Lincoln and Phillips Brooks, in Lee and Henry W. Grady, in Charles W.
Eliot and Edwin A. Alderman, and not in a provincial 'Connecticut
Yankee', jovial and whole--hearted though he be. I say this without
forgetting or minimizing for a moment the art displayed in effecting the
devastating and illimitably humorous contrast of a present with a
remotely past civilization. 'Joan of Arc' has no local association,
being a pure work of the heart, the chivalric impulse of a noble spirit.
'The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg', viewed from any standpoint, is a
masterpiece; but its significance lies, not in the locality of its
setting, but in the universality of its moral.

In a word, it was the East which broadened and universalized the spirit
of Mark Twain. We shall see, later on, that it steadily fostered in him
a spirit of true nationalism and hardy democracy. But it was the South
and the West which lavishly gave him of their most priceless riches, and
thereby created in Mark Twain an unique and incomparable genius, the
veritable type and embodiment of their inalienably individual life and
civilization. This first phase of the life of Mark Twain has been so
strongly stressed here, because the first half of his life has always
seemed to me to have been a period of--shall I say?--God-appointed
preparation for the most significant and lastingly permanent work of the
latter half, namely, the narration of the incidents of early experience,
and the imaginative reminting of the gold of that experience.

One has only to read Mark Twain's works to learn the real history of his
life. There were momentous episodes in the latter half of his career;
but they were concerned with his life rather than with his art. We
cannot, indeed, say what or how profound is the effect of life and
experience on art. There was the happy marriage, the tragic losses of
wife and children. There were the associations with the culture and
art--circles of America and Europe--New England, New York, Berlin,
Vienna, London, Glasgow; the academic degrees--Missouri, Yale; finally
ancient Oxford for the first time conferring the coveted honour of its
degree upon a humorist; the honours his own c