But after all that has
been said on these more tangible matters of human contact,
there still remains a part essential to a proper description of
the South which it is difficult to describe or fix in terms easily
understood by strangers. It is, in fine, the atmosphere of the
land, the thought and feeling, the thousand and one little
actions which go to make up life. In any community or nation
it is these little things which are most elusive to the grasp and
yet most essential to any clear conception of the group life
taken as a whole. What is thus true of all communities is
peculiarly true of the South, where, outside of written history
and outside of printed law, there has been going on for a
generation as deep a storm and stress of human souls, as
intense a ferment of feeling, as intricate a writhing of spirit,
as ever a people experienced. Within and without the sombre
veil of color vast social forces have been at work,--efforts
for human betterment, movements toward disintegration and
despair, tragedies and comedies in social and economic life,
and a swaying and lifting and sinking of human hearts which
have made this land a land of mingled sorrow and joy, of
change and excitement and unrest.
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