He and his multitudinous
followers, wise and foolish, have helped establish us in our new
soil.
I may seem to exaggerate the services of a group of writers who,
after all, can show but one great name, Thoreau's. I do not think
so, for if the heart of the nature lover is sometimes more active
than his head, the earth intimacies he gives us are vital to
literature in a very practical sense. Thanks to the modern science
of geography, we are beginning to understand the profound and
powerful influence of physical environment upon men. The
geographer can tell you why Charleston was aristocratic, why New
York is hurried and nervous, why Chicago is self-confident. He can
guess at least why in old communities, like Hardy's Wessex or the
North of France, the inhabitants of villages not ten miles apart
will differ in temperament and often in temper, hill town varying
from lowland village beneath it sometimes more than Kansas City
from Minneapolis. He knows that the old elemental forces--wind,
water, fire, and earth--still mold men's thoughts and lives a
hundred times more than they guess, even when pavements, electric
lights, tight roofs, and artificial heat seem to make nature only
a name.
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