THE PURITAN TRADITION
I N its beginnings American literature was the work of transplanted Englishmen. It did not, like the literature of most countries, evolve from primitive conditions. No legendary hero or events stirred the popular imagination to compose ballads or romances which in time might develop a national tradition. Yet there were apparent compensations. The language which the newcomers spoke had behind it the rich literary heritage of the English race from Caedmon to Shakespeare. And in the wilderness to which they had come there was such an abundance of the strange and the exciting as to stimulate even the most sluggish imagination. The modern romantic attitude toward nature, however, had not as yet developed; poets did not seek the wilderness for alleviation of their woes or stand in awe of its picturesqueness. Nor could the literature which had grown up largely around the court or the town serve for models in a country remote from civilization. For that matter, the men who first came
were little concerned about questions of art. Men of action they were, rather than of words. Their emotional needs were satisfied by their religion. Such writing as they produced does not rank high aesthetically, but it deserves consideration, if for no other reason than to show "the clay whence we were digged." When, through the eyes of the historical imagination, such writing is viewed in relation to its setting, much of what appears oldfashioned is seen to be manner and dress, not thought. Accordingly, the course in American literature takes account of much besides the work of Emerson and Hawthorne and Whitman and Poe; it includes the contribution of pioneer annalist and humble versifier, wherever that represented the trend of American thought. If, then, throughout the various periods of its history, the literature of the American people is considered a manifestation of social consciousness, the earliest writings reveal in common the Puritan tradition.
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