This is the paradox of American civilization. The individual seems to evolve faster than the nation in the United States. Doubtless, America has become more prosperous, materially speaking, but it is precisely this purely material philosophy which is a scandal to the young; they despair over it. Their country, rutted in self-complacency and steeped in the illusions of 1776, gives them the impression of an arrested civilization, of a multimillionaire who should have retired from business. The disenchantment of peace followed that of war, and intellectual and literary radicalism was born. Two Americans were facing each other with drawn weapons. This restlessness is quite apparent among the youth of the land. They are favored by the well-known indulgence and relaxation of discipline at home and in the school. In a country without traditions, intellectual instability is perforce great, as great as the restraint upon the _mores_ is tight. That with which the American youth clash, the “enemy,” is a rather vague entity. In Europe it would take a concrete shape, that of a man, of a creed, or an idea, but in America it is something much more impalpable and dangerous. It is the general state of public opinion and customs, the pretension of imposing upon the élite the blind and ready-made ideals of the masses. Thwarted desires, restraints, evasions, capitulations of the conscience or social revolt,--those are the result of standardization, of democratic leveling; they are equally the source of the pessimism which pervades American letters to-day. That is how it happens that the United States, so obviously optimistic as a nation, have a literature which is becoming increasingly depressed and tragic in tone. It is easy to imagine what a fertile soil such a state of mind affords to the development of Freudian microbes, and to what excesses these ardent and suppressed energies might go. It is for the criminologist and the sociologist to tell that story--a heart-rending one, verily. A great increase in criminality, especially among the young, the growth of sadistic, erotic and eccentric impulses, the disintegration of the family, neurasthenic and hysterical explosions, such is the other side of the picture and the price which the United States is paying for its material prosperity. Innumerable newspapers in search of new sensations daily exploit these scandals upon which they thrive. The American literature of to-day reflects this state of affairs faithfully.