ntury must measure itself. Communal feelings novel to
Americans bred under the accepted individualism will doubtless assert
themselves in our prose and verse. But it is to be remembered that the
best writing thus far produced on American soil has been a result of
the old conditions: of the old "Reverences"; of the pioneer training of
mind and body; of the slow tempering of the American spirit into an
obstinate idealism. We do not know what course the ship may take in the
future, but

"We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workman wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast and sail and rope,
What anvil rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!"

IV

Romance and Reaction

The characteristic attitude of the American mind, as we have seen, is
one of idealism. We may now venture to draw a smaller circle within
that larger circle of idealistic impulses, and to label the smaller
circle "romance." Here, too, as with the word "idealism," although we
are to make abundant use of literary illustrations of national
tendencies, we have no need of a severely technical definition of
terms. When we say, "Tom is an idealist" and "Lorenzo is a romantic
fellow," we convey at least one tolerably clear distinction between Tom
and Lorenzo. The idealist has a certain characteristic habit of mind or
inclination of spirit. When confronted by experience, he reacts in a
certain way. In his individual and social impulses, in the travail of
his soul, or in his commerce with his neighbors and the world, he
behaves in a more or less well-defined fashion. The romanticist, when
confronted by the same objects and experiences, exhibits another type
of behavior. Lorenzo, though he be Tom's brother, is a different
fellow; he is--in the opinion of his friends, at least--a rather more
peculiar person, a creature of more varying moods, of heightened
feelings, of stranger ways. Like Tom, he is a person of sentiment, but
his sentiment attaches itself, not so much to everyday aspects of
experience, as to that which is unusual or terrifying, lovely or far
away; he possesses, or would like to possess, bodily or spiritual
daring. He has the adventurous heart. He is of those who love to go
down to the sea in ships and do business in great waters. Lorenzo the
romanticist is made of no finer clay than Tom the idealist, but his
nerves are differently tuned. Your deep-sea fish