Conclusion

Abstract

Mankind has reached the end of the road and is about to die: that is the despairing diagnosis pronounced by many of the leading creative spokesmen of our age. God is dead and man too is dead, and it little matters now whether the world will go out with a whimper or a bang. Whether or not there are sufficient warranted grounds for such a philosophy of doom is beside the point; the fact remains that many writers believe Western civilization may soon be wiped out in an atomic holocaust when Armageddon is fought.

The social world of today is on the edge of chaos. The most habitual wearer of rose-colored glasses must admit it. A man who sings with Browning’s Pippa God’s in his heaven — All’s right with the world. is not an optimist; he is a fool. God died on November 24, 1859, and every day since the mound of earth above His grave has been piled higher.

Harvey Eagleson, “The Beginning of Modern Literature,” in Hardin Craig (ed.), Stanford Studies in Language and Literature. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1941, p. 338.