{"product_id":"2940013773844","title":"It Needs to be Said","description":"It is only natural that a nascent literature, arising in a young country\u003cbr\u003ewhich is on every hand surrounded by older civilizations, should, from a\u003cbr\u003espirit of self-assertion, emphasize those features, conditions, mental\u003cbr\u003eand spiritual attitudes which distinguish its life and its nationals\u003cbr\u003efrom those of other and older countries. The spirit of youth is hope;\u003cbr\u003eits driving force is confidence in its own powers; its reaction to life\u003cbr\u003eis that of an unbounded optimism. This country has a future, a great\u003cbr\u003efuture; and whether that future is going to be one of mere wealth, or of\u003cbr\u003ea mere purveyor of raw materials, will depend to a large extent upon\u003cbr\u003eourselves. Yet, you say, we feel the strength of our muscles, the\u003cbr\u003evigour of our enterprise: what should spring from it but glory and\u003cbr\u003eprosperity and happiness? We feel competent to cope with any problem. So\u003cbr\u003elong as that spirit, that confidence, that optimism are naive and\u003cbr\u003eunsophisticated, they are perfectly legitimate. But are they? Is there\u003cbr\u003enot a pose in much that is being said along these lines? Is not the\u003cbr\u003eboast of our youth often deliberately assumed to cloak a deplorable\u003cbr\u003eimpotence?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Footnote 1: Most of the chapters that follow were originally meant to\u003cbr\u003ebe delivered as addresses to that certain association. Owing to\u003cbr\u003ecircumstances not here relevant, they were not so delivered. The only\u003cbr\u003ereason why that original purpose is mentioned here consists in the\u003cbr\u003enecessity of an explanation of their present form which, at this late\u003cbr\u003ehour, I find myself unable to recast.]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat this is a young country is, of course, perfectly true. Manitoba, my\u003cbr\u003ehome province, is, as a political unit, scarcely older than myself. I\u003cbr\u003eknow people still living who came to Winnipeg when the present great\u003cbr\u003ecity was a village with a handful of inhabitants--a marvel of\u003cbr\u003edevelopment. Even those who may not unreservedly approve of the\u003cbr\u003edirection which this development has taken cannot but admire its\u003cbr\u003eswiftness and resistless strength--in spite of the fact that it is by no\u003cbr\u003emeans the first time in the history of colonial settlements that such a\u003cbr\u003emarvel of development has taken place. As I have said, it remains but\u003cbr\u003enatural that this young country should feel like David before the battle\u003cbr\u003ewith the Philistine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut it is also true that, mentally and spiritually, this young nation\u003cbr\u003eforms a mere bud on the larger growth of the great Anglo-Saxon Empire.\u003cbr\u003eMany of us came to this country saturated with the spiritual\u003cbr\u003eachievements of the older parts of that Empire, saturated with the great\u003cbr\u003eBritish tradition; many others imbued themselves with that tradition as\u003cbr\u003etheir true intellectual and spiritual food--by studying its policies,\u003cbr\u003eits thought, and its marvellous literature, unequalled or at least\u003cbr\u003eunexcelled by that of any other of the younger nations of Europe as\u003cbr\u003eopposed to those which we call ancient.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis great Anglo-Saxon tradition forms one of the directing and living\u003cbr\u003einfluences at work on our literature in the making. It has this in\u003cbr\u003ecommon with the other great traditions of Europe that, being born from a\u003cbr\u003eblending of the greatest artistic urge which the world has seen, that of\u003cbr\u003eancient Greece, with the greatest religious urge which the world has\u003cbr\u003eseen, that of Judah, its aim is still that of a final evaluation of\u003cbr\u003elife; of a recognition of man's true place in nature; of a determination\u003cbr\u003eof the balance, so far attained, between man's beasthood and man's\u003cbr\u003egodhead.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083243864304,"sku":"2940013773844","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013773844_p0.jpg?v=1763590086","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013773844","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}