isation of that destiny urgently necessary. In the Old
World, civilisation is imperilled. America must cherish the flickering
flame.

You possess one great advantage over us in Europe. You are free from
traditions; free from the burdens of thought, of sentiments, from
agelong follies, from the obsessions in the spheres of the intellect, of
art, and of politics; you are free from all these things which crush the
Old World. Contemporary Europe is sacrificing her future to quarrels,
ambitions, rancours, revived again and again. Every endeavour to bring
these troubles to an end serves but to add a few meshes to the net
wherein a murderous destiny has snared us. Our fate resembles that of
the Atrides, vainly awaiting, as in the _Eumenides_, a god's word of
power which may break the bloody spell. In art, if our writers owe their
perfection of form and their clarity of thought to the strength of our
classical traditions, these advantages have been gained at the cost of
great sacrifices. Too few among our artists are awakened to the manifold
life of the world. Their minds are mewed within a closed garden. They
display little interest concerning the spacious regions through which,
after leaving that garden, the river, a swelling flood, pursues its
torrential course, watering all the world.

You have been born in a land which is neither encumbered nor enclosed by
the artificial constructions of the mind. Profit by the fact. Be free.
Do not enslave yourselves to foreign examples. Your model is in
yourselves. Begin by knowing yourselves.

This is the first duty. The differing individualities which combine to
make up your country must not be afraid to express themselves in art; to
express themselves freely, honestly, integrally; without straining for
originality, but regardless of what expression may have been found by
those who have gone before, and fearless of the tyranny of opinion.
Above all, let them dare to look into their own souls, to look well and
long, to plumb the depths in silent meditation. Those who do so, must
then dare to reveal what they have seen. This self-communing is not a
self-incarceration within an egoistic personality. Those who engage in
it will strike deep roots in the essential being of the nation to which
they belong. I urge on you the endeavour to participate to the full in
its sufferings and its aspirations. Be the light lightening the darkness
of the great social masses whose mission it is to renew