The full result we can scarcely judge yet, for
despite signs of power and beauty and originality, only one or two
of these books have reached artistic maturity; but we can prepare
to comprehend it.
Here, roughly, is what I believe has happened, and if I confine my
conclusions to fiction, it is not because I fail to realize that
the effects are and will be far broader.
The youths of our epoch were born and grew up in a period of
criticism and disintegration. They were children when the attack
upon orthodox conceptions of society succeeded the attack upon
orthodox conceptions of religion. We know how "the conflict
between religion and science" reverberated in nineteenth-century
literature and shaped its ends. The new attack was quite
different. Instead of scrutinizing a set of beliefs, it
scrutinized a method of living. Insensibly, the intelligent youth
became aware that the distribution of wealth and the means of
getting it were under attack; that questions were raised as to the
rights of property and the causes and necessity of war. Soon moral
concepts began to be shaken. He learned that prostitution might be
regarded as an economic evil.
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