The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-12-12

practice; a divorce which impover-
ishes our national culture and our ma
tional civilization. The ~"highbrow"
offers us spiritual but rather anamic
prizes. the 'lowbrow" makes for big
business. The Apostle of Free Silver.
at the time he was trying to liberatc
humanity from its cross of gold. an
nounced that though all the profess
sors in the United States should dis
agree with him it should not affect his
decision. This plainly. says Mr..
Brooks, was a dilemma. For on the
n hand stood a body of experts and
% the other II man whose profession
II was to reform economic practice.
Wherever there is such "A complete
divergence between expert theory and
actual practice, an openly vowed and
cynical contempt of theory on the part
Of practice. and Il practice totally m
restrained by expert thinking some
thing must he wrong. and 1t is this
divorce which Mr.. Brooks analyses.
The two attitudes of mind have been
phrased once and for all in our YER
racular as "highbrow" and ~'lowbrow."
These terms offered in turn to culti-
N"'''' lSlA INV WV
have produced no equivalents. For
with them action waits upon thought
and thought still has some authority
over action. What side of American
life. asks the writer. IL not touched
10y this antithesis? What explanation
of American life is more central and
more Illuminating? Both highbrow
and lowbrow are used in a derogatory
sense. The highhrow is the superior
person whose virtue is felt TO be inept
and unpaiatable. while the lowbrow is
Il good fellow whom n accepts with
"a certain scprn for all his works.
To understand this cleavage n
must turG. back to the Puritan the
ocrary Of the American mind. The
Puritan made the Deity responsible
for the practical affairs of the race.
This prccluded any central Dor and
justified the unlimited centrifugal en-
pediency II American life. The same
instinct which made against centrally
In government made also against GEN.
traiity in thought. or any common
standards. So. says Mr.. Brooks. there
we've two main currents running side
by side in the American mind. but
rarely mingling; ON the one hand
TIL current Of transcendentalism. be-
coming a philosophy in Jonathan Ed
wards. passing through Emerson and
producing the fastidious refinement
M aluufrtss Of American writer's and,
as transcendcntalism gradually faded,
leaving the uurcality and insnbstan-
TALLY of contemporary American cul-
.,.,. ~. H4, -. I.,,I t1,, go, .
Catchpcnny opportuniSm, originating
in the practical shifts Of Puritan life.
v,cominG u philosophy in Benjamin
t'ranklin, passing through II Ameri-
can humur.sts and cynics. resulting in
contemporary business life. The W
philosophers. Jonathan Edwards and
benjamin Franklin, We're each con-
,rast!nS types of amazing purity and
in Tin" apparent incompatibility OF
their aims they determined the Ameri-
can character. Claiming. Lincoln,
Emerson. Whitman. Garrison. Edison.
Rockefeller and Mrs. Eddy are all per-
mutations and combinations of these
two prosecutors. Desiccatcd culture
and stark utility have created a dead
lock in the American mind and our
NE ullIlS tlliblltiitlN lIlf lWb
extremes, our literary style, says the
author. j. pure" 'surely he means
where there is any attempt al style AZ
ain. our traditions in oratory and pu-
liti,ai prose retain the spirit Of the
eighteenth century. but. NJ the cost at
expressing a popular life, bubhling
with energy hut slipping ever further
and further away from the control of
tested ideas. carlyle wrote Ia Emer-
son: I'VE, lind YOU Il speaker indeed,
but IS il were a l.ouuier on thu
eternal mountain tops only. in vast
solitud"s where men and their affairs
lie all hush,d in a very dim remote
ness.
The essay on "pur Poets" is sn witty
and iuclS.Ve. 50 DELIGHTFULLY."- amusing
and keen sighted that it is almoS;
wrong To- forcstall the pleasure Of read
ing II hv quotation. The author begins
with the statement that in American
literature something il undoubtedly
wanting. We all know this. We
have all cried aloud that Amer
lea could produce no great genius
The nearest approach Of curse was
Whitman. 1t H. true that the mos;
benign sentiment will not influence
men unless 1t has IN it that Whic,l
grips at the roots of personality. NJ
writer thlt has ever lived and writer
in America has had power To move IN.
national soul from the accumulation 81
dollars. None has shown C~onVinCingly
"A life more cutiCing:
The Nr.t generation q; American writer,