ter of story-books!' 'What kind of business in life, ---what mode of glorifying God, or being serviceable to mankind in his day and generation,---may that be? Why the degenerate fellow might as well have been a fiddler!' Such are the complaints bandied between my great-grandsires and myself, across the golf of time"(Hawthorne, 10). Hawthorne's preceding quotation refers to the reaction that his forefathers would express in light of his decision to abandon a traditional occupation and pursue a career as a writer. This kind of reaction illustrates a belief that in abandoning traditional customs of service to mankind, one inevitably fails to lead a worthy or productive life, and thus support a notion that traditional and historical forces are substantive in the Puritan culture. Furthermore, Hawthorne states "Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generation, in the same worn out soil" expressing a belief that the clinging on to roots of the past is not a sufficient way to bring about social and intellectual progress (Hawthorne, 10). Hawthorne's belief that perhaps a more liberal and individualist approach to society is more conducive to human development is evident through his contention that, "it may be, howeverthat the great-grandchildren of the present race may sometime think kindly of the scribbler of bygone days"(Hawthorne, 34). Hawthorne's lack of faith in tradition is the impetus for his desire to advocate liberalism over classical conservatism as a more fruitful way of obtaining social progress for the relatively new American nation. In endorsing individuality and a break from tradition Hawthorne is dismissive of classical conservatism---that ideology which is centered on the preservation of tradition. Hawthorne thus attacks classical conservatism through his novel by undermining this ideology's most central tenet that expresses a firm belief that ...
