The Assault on Humanism

Excerpt from The Assault on Humanism

In the common lot of physical mortality, Nature has discriminated against the maga zine. Less ephemeral in essential things than the newspaper, it follows the daily journal close in the race for, oblivion. Like other liv ing creatures, however, the magazine adapts itself instinctively to the circumstances of its being, and lives its time, taking on Zthe vivid colors of the world about it, careless how soon they fade after the last fatal days of the month have heralded the birth of a successor. But it is The Atlantic's happy experience to enjoy, now and again, a kind of posthumous satis faction in a continuing public interest in contributions which, thanks to the spirit of the times, or to the genius of an author, are read, reread, and saved with painful care. To these occasional and unusual contribu tions, The Atlantic has determined to offer a less precarious immortality by publishing them now and again in editions of its own, selecting a form we consider appropriate.