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He possessed that elan with which young races often carry all before them when, they give the fresh vigour of their understanding to master an existing system; his memory, as he himself tells us, was so prodigious that he could recite 2000 names correctly after once hearing them; and, with the taste for showy ornament which his race has always evinced, he must have launched himself without misgiving into the competition of the schools.
Despite all its external show of elan, courtesy, and chivalry, 'the South, as it exists, is and ever must be, in the very great aggregate, inferior to the North in the elements of progress, and in nearly all that constitutes true superiority.
The distance is wide between such élan of youthful passion and the fidelity which is inevitable, and on which age has set its seal, in that poem of perfect attainment, By the Fireside.
When we hear that there is, animating the whole universe, an Élan vital, or general impulse toward some unknown but single ideal, the terms used are no less uncertain, mythical, and vague, but the suggestion conveyed is false false, I mean, to the organic source of life and aspiration, to the simple naturalness of nature: whereas the suggestion conveyed by Freud's speculations is true.
Now, of a sudden, they crowded in on him tightly-wedged wall of humanity expectant, terrifying.... The two had drawn rein, facing each other; and for that mere moment Roy felt as if his nerve was gone. A glance at the crowded tent, the gleam of a blue-green figure leaning forward.... Then Lance's voice, low and peremptory, 'Come on. In the same breath he himself came on, with formidable élan.
German psychology left out the result of the combination, just as it never considered that the British could in two years submerge their individualism sufficiently to become a military nation. There is a French word, élan, which has been much overworked in describing French character.
If this pursuit to be doggedly literal appeared to lag for a moment, if it did not seem to start with that instant élan which one had a right to expect, be sure that there was a complication of sound reasons for that. Kerr, in the circumstances, was the appointed leader of the chase; and Kerr hesitated.
In the attempt to explain plant and animal life, Aristotle formulated the theory that a special form of animating principle was involved. The "élan vital" of Bergson and the theory of Joad are modern reiterations of this conception. Aristotle is not quite consistent when he attempts to give us his theistic beliefs.
"That will do!" the Master curtly interrupted, with steadfast eyes peering out through the conning windows. Now that the first élan of excitement had spent itself, this strange man had once more resumed his mantle of calm.
But we cannot thus account for the elan vital itself.
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