The sub-
consciousness is the governor of the waking brain. Tradition--
which is just man's memory of man--flows through it like an
underground river from which rise the springs of every-day
thinking. If there is anything remarkable about a book, look to
the sub-consciousness of the writer and study the racial tradition
that it bears.
Now, I am far from proposing to analyze the American sub-
consciousness. No man can define it. But of this much I am
certain. The American habit of going "back to nature" means that
in our sub-consciousness nature is peculiarly active. We react to
nature as does no other race. We are the descendants of pioneers--
all of us. And if we have not inherited a memory of pioneering
experiences, at least we possess inherited tendencies and desires.
The impulse that drove Boone westward may nowadays do no more than
send some young Boone canoeing on Temagami, or push him up Marcy
or Shasta to inexplicable happiness on the top. But the drive is
there. And furthermore, nature is still strange in America. Even
now the wilderness is far from no American city. Birds, plants,
trees, even animals have not, as in Europe, been absorbed into the
common knowledge of the race.
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