But if
these autobiographians are, as I believe, expansive romanticists,
that is of deeper significance, and my hope is that the definition
may prove useful to them as well as to readers who with an amazed
affection persist in following them wherever they lead.
PURITANS ALL
When anything goes wrong in politics the American practice is to
charge it against the Administration. In literature all grievances
are attributed to the Puritans. If a well-written book does not
sell, it is because the Puritans warped our sense of beauty; if an
honest discussion of sex is attacked for indecency, it is the
fault of the Puritan inheritance; if the heroes and heroines of
new narratives in prose or verse jazz their way to destruction or
impotence, it is in protest against the Puritans.
Who is this terrible Puritan? Apparently he is all America's
ancestor, and whether you were born in Delaware or in South
Carolina, in Montana or in Jugoslavia, you must adopt him as
great-great-grandfather or declare yourself alien.
What was he, or rather, what did he stand for, and inflict upon
us, to-day? Here there is some confusion.
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