men appear but as momentary eddies and transient formations in the current. They have achieved greatness only in proportion to their capacity to receive this streaming energy. The most useful pursuit of our history and biography must always lead us from the study of forms to the study of the formative spirit, from the study of individuals to the study of that creative force of which they are but temporary representatives. Where does it reside—in what institutions, in what customary and traditional beliefs, in what elements of the popular culture—that genius of America which dispenses, one after another, with all its great servants, and confidently entrusts the destiny of a people to untried hands?
In this book, which is a kind of sequel to Americans, I have made some rudimentary attempts at an answer. Two of the essays here appear for the first time in print: "Vocation" and "Literature and the Government of Men." For permission to reprint the others I am indebted as follows: to The Atlantic Monthly for "The Genius of America," "What Is a Puritan?" and "The Point of View in American Criticism"; to The Nation for "A Conversation
