Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/86

 72 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

alty and make the best modern sovereigns. Could we conceive society in charge of women, we should no doubt get a change in national symbol as significant as the passage in the church from the Madonna-cult to the Jesus-cult. Equally meaning is the fabrication for the symbol for the larger, not the minor, group. It is when the imagination fails to grasp the vast collective life that the symbol is invoked. A Tyrtaeus merely reminds of home and altar. A Lowell appeals for his country

" Smoothing thy gold of war-disheveled hair On such sweet brows as never other were ; "

or dreams of Truth

" plumed and mailed' With sweet, stern face unveiled And all-repaying eyes "

In such way, then breathing life and charm into symbols that press back realities and enter among the guiding stars of the individual life does the artist make himself ally and friend of the purposes of society.

(f) By fascinating ^vith new types. What the artist holds up to nature is not always a mirror ; sometimes it is a model. For he may not content himself with putting us in touch with our kind ; he may choose to put us under the spell of exceptional or imaginary people, for whom he would excite admiration rather than fellow feeling. All people long to stamp their lives with distinction, but few there are who can conceive how to do it. To these victims of the commonplace comes the genius with this radiant image or that fascinating figure. He flashes before their eyes a Werther or a Hernani, a Prince Hal or a King Arthur, a Gretchen or a Julie, and they troop after him as children after the Piper of Hamelin. In this way a Calderon, a Rousseau, or a Bunyan leaves his stamp on national character. The welding power of a national literature is partly its power to assimilate a people by molding them over a number of specific types.

The ideal creations, then, of poet or novelist or playwright become mother types and bring forth men and women in their