Dr. Beatrice M. Hinkle, in the introduction to her translation of Jung’s “Psychology of the Unconscious,” says that “this psychology which is pervading all realms of thought ... seems destined to be a psychological-philosophical system for the understanding and practical advancement of human life.” So, having found a well whose waters were refreshing, I note the fact--and pass on. The train of thought which the reader has followed in this Introduction is the train of thought which led me--after some delay--to the publication of the book. I am glad that these “Last Letters from the Living Dead Man” are a call to courage, to restraint, to faith in the great and orderly future of America and the world, a call to all those positive qualities so gravely needed in these days of the rebuilding of Peace. For I do not believe that Bolshevism, or any other form of lunacy, will find foothold in the United States. A nation with universal suffrage, for man and woman, certainly has no incentive for a resort to insane destruction. In the last State campaign it was interesting to watch the reactions of women to the privileges and duties of suffrage. I watched it only in one party, the Democratic, but it was doubtless everywhere the same. There was an added dignity, a sense of new responsibility, and always courtesy and real fellowship among the women and the men. Its happening to correspond in time with the Fourth Liberty Loan campaign, and the printing of casualty lists, made it all the more significant. No, these level-headed, socially-responsible women will never be swept away by collective insanity; and as the men who return from the front will return to these women, their mothers, wives and sisters, I do not think that we shall lose in peace what we have gained in war. And now--remembering always that this book was written between February, 1917, and February, 1918--you may read the “Last Letters from the Living Dead Man.” ELSA BARKER New York, Easter Day, 1919. LETTER I THE GENIUS OF AMERICA _February 3, 1917._ I WANT to write of America, land of my latest birth, land of the future. Great is the road that the Genius of America may travel, and her feet have already passed the early stages of it. The Genius of America! Each land is watched over and its children guided--guided and moved--by a Genius. Would you feel the Genius of America, go alone into the woods at night, watch and listen and invoke. Perhaps the answer may come, its recognition of you, your recognition of it.