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THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA




  [Illustration]

  THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
  NEW YORK. BOSTON. CHICAGO
  DALLAS. SAN FRANCISCO

  MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
  LONDON. BOMBAY. CALCUTTA
  MELBOURNE

  THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
  TORONTO




  THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA

  BY

  HENRY VAN <DW18>

  Professor of English at Princeton University
  Hyde Lecturer, University of Paris, 1908-9
  Hon. LL.D., University of Geneva
  Hon. F.R.S.L., London


  New York
  THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
  1912

  _All rights reserved_




  COPYRIGHT, 1910,
  BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

  Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1910.
  Reprinted March, October, 1910; February, 1912.


  Norwood Press
  J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
  Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.




TO MADAME

ELISABETH SAINTE-MARIE PERRIN, _NEE_ BAZIN


To inscribe your name upon this volume, dear Madame, is to recall
delightful memories of my year in France. Your sympathy encouraged me in
the adventurous choice of a subject so large and simple for a course of
lectures at the Sorbonne. While they were in the making, you acted as an
audience of one, in the long music-room at Hostel and in the forest of
St. Gervais, and gave gentle counsels of wisdom in regard to the points
likely to interest and retain a larger audience of Parisians in the
_Amphitheatre Richelieu_. Then, the university adventure being ended
without mishap, your skill as a translator admirably clothed the
lectures in your own lucid language, and sent them out to help a little
in strengthening the ties of friendship between France and America.
Grateful for all the charming hospitality of your country, which made my
year happy and, I hope, not unfruitful, I dedicate to you this book on
the Spirit of America, because you have done so much to make me
understand, appreciate, and admire the true Spirit of France.

                                                       HENRY VAN <DW18>.




PREFACE


This book contains the first seven of a series of twenty-six
_conferences_, given in the winter of 1908-1909, on the Hyde Foundation,
at the University of Paris, and repeated in part at other universities
of France. They were delivered in English, and afterward translated into
French and published under the title of _Le Genie de l'Amerique_. In
making this American edition it has not seemed worth while to attempt to
disguise the fact that these chapters were prepared as lectures to be
given to a French audience, and that their purpose, in accordance with
the generous design of the founder of the chair, was to promote an
intelligent sympathy between France and the United States. If the book
finds readers among my countrymen, I beg them, as they read, to remember
its origin. Perhaps it may have an interest of its own, as a report,
made in Paris, of the things that seem vital, significant, and creative
in the life and character of the American people.




CONTENTS


                                          PAGE
  INTRODUCTION                              xi
  THE SOUL OF A PEOPLE                       3
  SELF-RELIANCE AND THE REPUBLIC            31
  FAIR PLAY AND DEMOCRACY                   71
  WILL-POWER, WORK, AND WEALTH             113
  COMMON ORDER AND SOCIAL COOPERATION