THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
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THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA
BY
HENRY VAN DYKE
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, NÉE BAZIN
To inscribe your name upon this volume, dear Madame, is torecall delightful memories of my year in France. Your sympathyencouraged me in the adventurous choice of a subject so large andsimple for a course of lectures at the Sorbonne. While they werein the making, you acted as an audience of one, in the long music-roomat Hostel and in the forest of St. Gervais, and gave gentlecounsels of wisdom in regard to the points likely to interest andretain a larger audience of Parisians in the Amphithéâtre Richelieu.Then, the university adventure being ended without mishap, yourskill as a translator admirably clothed the lectures in your ownlucid language, and sent them out to help a little in strengtheningthe ties of friendship between France and America. Grateful forall the charming hospitality of your country, which made my yearhappy and, I hope, not unfruitful, I dedicate to you this book onthe Spirit of America, because you have done so much to make meunderstand, appreciate, and admire the true Spirit of France.
HENRY VAN DYKE.
PREFACE
This book contains the first seven of a series oftwenty-six conférences, given in the winter of 1908-1909,on the Hyde Foundation, at the Universityof Paris, and repeated in part at other universitiesof France. They were delivered in English, andafterward translated into French and publishedunder the title of Le Génie de l’Amérique. Inmaking this American edition it has not seemedworth while to attempt to disguise the fact thatthese chapters were prepared as lectures to begiven to a French audience, and that their purpose,in accordance with the generous design of thefounder of the chair, was to promote an intelligentsympathy 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 areport, made in Paris, of the things that seem vital,significant, and creative in the life and characterof the American people.
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