know the representative persons of
his time or of his race. The essence
of provincialism is the substitution of
a part for the whole; the acceptance
of the local experience, knowledge,
and standards as possessing the au-
thority of the universal experience,
knowledge, and standards. The local
experience is entirely true in its own
sphere; it becomes misleading when
it is accepted as the experience of all
time and all men. It is this mistake
which breeds that narrowness and un-
certainty of taste and opinion from
which culture furnishes the only es-
cape. A small community, isolated
from other communities by the acci-
dents of position, often comes to
believe that its way of doing things
is the way of the world; a small body
of religious people, devoutly attentive
to their own observances, often reach

[[155]]

p154 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p155w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p156

v?