WE have seen how New England leaped for-
ward spiritually and materially in response
to the adoption of the Federal Constitution.
Ralph Waldo Emerson in his sketch of New
England subsequent to 1844 not only bears witness
to the manner in which the enfranchised spirit of
the Yankee dared everything but has recorded with
some particularity the achievements that followed
in the realm of thought.

There was a new consciousness. The former
generations acted under the belief that a shining
social prosperity was the beatitude of man, and
sacrificed uniformly the citizen to the state. The
modern mind believed that the Nation existed for the
individual, for the guardianship and education of
every man. This order roughly united in revolutions
and national movements, in the mind of the philos-
opher had far more precision. The individual is the
world. This perception is a sword such as was never
drawn before. The social sentiments are weak;
sentiment of patriotism is weak; the natural affections
feebler than they were. People grow philosophical

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