hat a man's chief lesson
was to pull his brain down into his spinal cord; that is to say, to
make his activities not so much the result of conscious thought and
volition, as of unconscious, reflex action; to stop thinking and
willing, and simply _do_ what one has to do. May there not be a hint
here of the ultimate relation of the individual to the social
organism; the relation of our literature to our national character?
There is a period, no doubt, when the individual must painfully
question himself, test his powers, and acquire the sense of his own
place in the world. But there also comes a more mature period when he
takes that place unconsciously, does his work almost without thinking
about it, as if it were not his work at all. The brain has gone down
into the spinal cord; the man is functioning as apart of the organism
of society; he has ceased to question, to plan, to decide; it is
instinct that does his work for him.

Literature and art, at their noblest, function in that instinctive way.
They become the unconscious expression of a civilization. A nation
passes out of its adolescent preoccupation with plans and with
materials. It learns to do its work, precisely as Goethe bade the
artist do his task, without talking about it. We, too, shall outgrow in
time our questioning, our self-analysis, our futile comparison of
ourselves with other nations, our self-conscious study of our own
national character. We shall not forget the distinction between "each"
and "all," but "all" will increasingly be placed at the service of
"each." With fellowship based upon individualism, and with
individualism ever leading to fellowship, America will perform its
vital tasks, and its literature will be the unconscious and beautiful
utterance of its inner life.

THE END.

The Riverside Press

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

U. S. A.

* * * * *

Transcriber's Notes

Pages 53, 141: Changed the oe ligature to oe in the name Crevecoeur:
(Settlers like Crevecoeur), (enthusiasm of a settler like Crevecoeur)

Page 67: Changed compaign to campaign:
(Their compaign of "exposure," during the last decade,)

Page 165: Retained the spaced 't is, to match original line of poetry:
("If my bark sinks, 't is to another sea.")

Page 222: Changed conciousness to consciousness:
(the preoccupied colonial conciousness.)

Page 223: Changed explans to explains:
(It explans the still lingering popu