ABSTRACT
Humanism is an equilibrium. On the one side is the builder, the leader, who makes a clean sweep of tradition in the name of action and technique; on the other side is the man of letters, the mandarin, who takes infinite delight in the classic texts without bringing them to life. Both are equally remote from humanism. It is only too easy to fall into one or the other groove. That is why humanism is rare. Humanism, in every period, must wear a different countenance, since its function at any moment is to turn the course of culture in the direction of men's vital needs. The obstacle to the flowering of humanism at the present time is, in the sphere of culture, the overwhelming accumulation of heterogeneous riches, and in the sphere of action, the complex multiplicity and urgency of the tasks to be accomplished.
