that century. But the lines of force lead backward into the colonial
past, and forward into the contemporary present. The dream has al-
ways been a fact of American history, and even if a delusion, it re-
mains a motivating force.

Across the centuries the earliest proclamation of "Sion's Saviour"
and the latest celebration of "The Epic of America" have emphasized
certain constant ideas. Both have looked to the achievement of a
new and better way of life in the new world, and both have declared
the democratic basis of this new way. In America "the Lord will
create a new Heaven and a new Earth," or (according to the modern
version) "a better, richer and happier life." And in America He will
create "a new Commonwealth together for all the people of Christ,"
or (according to the modern version) "for all our citizens of every
rank." These two ideas, of progress ("a new and better life"), and of
democracy ("a new Commonwealth together") have remained con-
stant; and always they have been projected upon the new world
("this is the place").

Of these three ideas underlying the dream, only that of place has
been wholly "American," for essentially the dream is as old as the
mind of man. Earlier versions had placed it in Eden or in Heaven,
in Atlantis or in Utopia; but always in some country of the imagina-
tion. Then the discovery of the new world gave substance to the old
myth, and suggested the realization of it on actual earth. America
became "the place" where the religious prophecies of Isaiah and the
Republican ideals of Plato might be realized.

But the localization of the old dream of a better life in the new
world did more than merely focus it--it changed it radically. The
philosophic Republic of Plato and the religious kingdom of heaven
became secularized. And the myth of a timeless perfection in Utopia
or heaven became projected upon the temporal future of America.

In this process of localization, the old Christian ideal of heavenly
perfection became one of progressive realization. "A new heaven and
a new earth" became "a new heaven on this new earth." Perfection
was projected not upon another world, but upon America--it might
not be achieved at once (except by certain souls elected by the grace
of God), but it would be achieved gradually by all Progress toward
the better life, and freedom for the pursuit of it, became the modified,
secularized ideals of the American dream.

Yet "the dream" remained a dream. The choice of this word to
name the old millennial hope as projected upon the new American
world implied a certain ambivalence. For a "dream" suggests an un-
conscious contradiction, or unreality. Either the word must be re-

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