Note 38 — The Dilemma of Modern Tragedy ALAN REYNOLDS THOMPSON

Since this paper was written my attention has been called to “Humanism and Tragedy,” an admirable article by Mr. F. McEachran (Nineteenth Century and After, July, 1929). Based on Professor Babbitt’s three levels of human conduct, naturalistic, human, and religious, Mr. McEachran’s thesis is that tragedy, since it demands an assumption of human dignity, cannot develop in a naturalistic age like the present, and is difficult in a religious one. The age of Pericles, of Elizabeth, and of Louis XIV were humanistic; they were followed by naturalistic decadence in which man and nature were equated and tragedy became impossible. Mr. McEachran’s “human dignity” and my “heroism” seem equivalent.