William Mackintire Salter - Walt Whitman, Two Addresses, 1899

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William Mackintire Salter

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UNlVEmnY ,

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Walt Whitman Two

Addresses

by

William Mackintire Salter

PHILADELPHIA: 1899

S.

BURNS WESTON

9^3 S/7

T.

II.

The Great Side of Walt Whitman

.

The Questionable Side of Walt Whitman

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25

INNEJ-fi J'ONJ'

—

I.

THE GREAT SIDE OF WALT WHITMAN.*

BY WILLIAM M. SALTER. I

AM aware

that to

suggests what

than anything

many

the

else.

I

of

speak of

shall

At present

quent lecture.

name

Walt Whitman

problematical or even offensive rather

is

I

this

in

a subse-

wish to speak of some of

the things in his writings that appeal to us directly

Adam Bede

words of Scripture, and need no candle to show them.

As not long ago I went over some of the great passages in his writings, I said to myself, What a shame that because of their being bound in with a few things as

that,

shine by their

own

said of certain

light

that offend, they should be practically lost to the world

[

wonder how many of you have read the " Passage to India," which contains not a line to which one could object, and at the close fairly touches the sublime ?

Or I

the

"Song

Open Road," with its freedom and Or the "Song of the

of the

joy and mighty seriousness?

Broad Axe," or the "Song of the Exposition," or * This and the succeeding address were

first

"A

given before the Society for

Ethical Culture of Philadelphia in the autumn of 1894.

The

quotations are

from the large complete edition of Whitman's works, published (two volumes in one) in Philadelphia in 1888. Messrs. Small, Maynard & Co., of Boston, have since brought out the same (with additions) in more conven-

But the greatest service to the general public has been rendered

by Professor Oscar L. Triggs, of the University of Chicago, in his recently ient shape.

puhVished Sc'/eaiof?s

from

IValt

Whitman

reader will find most of the great things of

earher

little

books of

selections

(Small, Maynard & Co.) Whitman in this volume.

by Mr.

inadequate.

(0

Arthur Stedman are

The The quite

Song

Occupations

for

"

Yet these are things that

?

have the largeness, the power, the inspiration, that take

them into the circle of the great literature of the world.

I wonder how many have even read " Drum-Taps," written during war-time, that still stir the blood, and contain not one false or ignoble note. of Whitman's that

—

Captain "

is

widely

Perhaps the only poem

knowm

O

*'

is

Captain,

My

a tender tribute to our martyr President, yet

giving scarcely a hint of the imaginative levels, the capacious ranges of thought, that in tute

Whitman's best claims

Accordingly

I

my

judgement

consti-

to distinction.

can perhaps do no better service than

by making Whitman a little known to some to whom he has been little more than a name before, and to this end I shall not so much talk about him, or attempt any estimate of him for which, indeed, one would need to be

—

far

am

better acquainted with literature in

—

as let

some of

am

him speak.

My

thoughts

in order.

his

intent upon, I shall

on Whitman's

style,

And

general than

I

simply be to set

office will

as

it is

thoughts

I

excuse myself from commenting

and

will

not discuss the

question as to whether his poetry

is

mooted

poetry or not.

I

acknowledge the awkwardness, and even slovenliness, of

amusing little affectathough when intions in which he sometimes indulges On spiration comes to him he leaves all this behind. his lines, at times, the

slang, the

—

the other hand, he surely has lines of simple melody, of

which Tennyson need not have been ashamed

:

" Long and long has the grass been growing, Long and long has the rain been falling,

Long has the globe been * Complete Poems

and

rolling round." *

Prose of Walt Whitman, Vol.

I, p.

158.

He

capable of a felicitous line like this

is

"Welcome, again, of an

Still

"He

judges

ineffable grace of dying days." *

image

like this

:

but as the sun falling

as the judge judges,

not

:

round a helpless thing." f

How

could one surpass this?

a helpless thing."

The sun

"

There are

round

falling

other lines having

still

and perfection of form, of which he was But I will not linger.

just that grace

ordinarily so careless.

The

central thought, the great unifying thought, of

Whitman,

that of

is

sacredness, of individual existence. of any,

who have expressed

power, more

reality.

He

masses

The

—

classes,

individual

races,

man, the

know

I

of few,

if

thought with more

this

holds on to the substance of

Men

the Christian tradition in this respect. in

the worth, the

the significance,

or humanity

are not lost

to

mind.

his

human soul, when Emerbundles." They are

separate

single,

stands always foremost before him.

son says, "Souls are not saved

—

in

It is

as

not saved in bundles, and they do not exist in bundles.

Every one

feels,

however closely he may be associated

with others, and however blessed that he

may

himself, and, in a sense,

is

be the association,

no one

else

knows '

him, and no one else can take the place of him. "

—

this

before

—

No one can acquire for another not one, No one can grow for another — not one." I

With this thought ever refrain. is Whitman's him he declares that nothing is good to him that

ignores individuals.! *

/die/.,

Vol.

\ Ibid., p.

I, p.

273.

72.

We

are apt to think that the indi-

t /h'd., Vol.

I, p.

269.

t

If'i<^-^

P-

178.

much, that the species, the race, and try to find comfort in " The individual dies, but the race lives on." But that Each and just the opposite of Whitman's thought.

vidual does not count for

We

is all. it,

is

say

in these days,

every one counts, and neither

time nor eternity can

in

any one take the place of another. " Each who passes is considered," he declares, and "the young man who died and was buried," " the young w^oman who died and was put at his side," " the little child that peeped in at the door and then drew back and was never seen again," "the old

and

feels

count.*

human

man who

has lived without purpose,

with bitterness worse than gall "

it

It is this

thought that breeds

respect and a universal

alone, yearning and thoughtful,

sits

men

other

are

there

other

in

in

human it

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

all,

all

him a universal

As he

affection.

comes

to

him that

yearning

lands,

and

thoughtful, "

seems

It

to

Italy,

Or

far, far,

me

I

can look over and behold tliem

in

Germany,

France, Spain,

away, in China, or

in

Russia or Japan, talking other

dialects,

And

it

seems

to

me

if I

could

attached to them as

I

do

know to

those

men

in

men

I

my own

should become lands,

know we should be brethren and lovers, know I should be happy with them."f I

1

same thought that leads him (as if to test it and make sure it was real) into those catalogues of all sorts and conditions of men, that to some are so wearisome or else repulsive. For how easy it is for us to say It

is

"all

this

men

are our brothers," or "

God;" but how * Complete Poems t Ibid., p. 106.

difficult to

all

are the children of

say, This felon on trial in

and Prose of Walt Whitman,

Vol.

I, p.

70.

—

)

trial in

court

our brother, or

is

this bedrag-crled

woman,

or that far-away savage, that Hottentot with cHcking

dwarfed Kamtschatkan, that Austral negro,

palate, that

naked, red, sooty, with protrusive that haggard,

lip,

grovelling, seeking

Bedowee, roamer of Amazonia, that Patagonian, that Feejeeman * Yet this is what Whitman says, and food,

his

uncouth, untutored

that benighted

!

these

lists,

these individualized portraits, are eloquent to

those

who

see the thought, the impulse that led to their

Yes, with a touch of humor that is rare in him sometimes ask myself. Was there any humor in Whit-

creation.

(I

man

—

—

he is generally so deadly in earnest) of humor, t be such, that at once passes into the profoundest

?

if it

gravity, he says, after confessing he belongs to his city

and

feels the significance

"The

little

plentiful

of whatever he sees there

manikins skipping around

in

:

collars

and

tail'd coats, I

I

am aware who they are (they are positively not worms or fleas), acknowledge the duplicates of myself, the weakest and shallowme, do and say the same waits

est is deathless with

What

I

Every thought that flounders "^Complete Poems

and

in

for

them,

me the same flounders in them."

Prose of Walt Whitman, Vol.

t So G. Sarrazin. " Whitman mor. {In Re : Walt Whitman,

differs p.

from Richter by a

161.)

But

cf.

I,

%

pp. 119-120.

total

lack of hu-

T. B. Harned: ''Many

I called on my way to church, and he always enjoyedme with fine irony (for he was full of quiet humor): 'Well, Tom, you know my philosophy includes them all even the Unitarians!' " {In

Sunday evenings telling

Re: Walt Whitman, X Complete

In a similar

"The The The

p. 356.

Poems and Prose of Walt Whitman, Vol.

I, p.

68.

spirit:

interminable hordes of the ignorant and wicked are not nothing.

barbarians of Africa and Asia are not nothing, perpetual successions of shallow people are not nothing as they go."

—Ibid., Vol.

I, p.

336.

It

evident that

is

(perhaps

it

presupposes a peculiar and

this

all

human

view of

distinct

nature.

It

has always been so, but

men

seems

to

modern

ticularly the case since the advent of

contrast the littleness of

customary now

is

it

be par-

science) to

with the greatness of nature.

—

The world about us is undoubtedly bigger than we if by we is meant our body. And if we have simply these become somewhat absurd man.

make

to

it

does

much account

so

of

But Whitman proposed other standards of meas-

How much

urement.

do not know

I

of measurement,

standards

material

outw^ard

—

reasoned thought, that

But

in place there.

his

is,) in

one

this

poems, nor would

may

and there

in

say

his

was,

no philosophy (no

is

ripest results of philosophical analysis

to be found here

Whitman

of a philosopher

certainly there

—

that

and

it

be

some of the

reflection are

pages, though they

appear as feelings, presentiments, intuitions, rather than as reasoned products.

Whitman

between personality and

all

is

aware of the difference

other things.

He

pictures

himself not overawed by nature, but standing at ease before her, " "

—aplomb

in the

midst of irrational things." *

am

not an earth nor an adjunct of an earth," f he boldly declares. He is not contained, he assures us with I

absolute simplicity, between his hat and his boots. J idea that there as

is

more

Tennyson puts

it,

to

man

man is

than the things he touches

than what

is

not what he sees and other

—

this idea

of a mysterious

somewhat beyond the body or anything measured or laid hold of this is real and

—

* Complete Poems and Prose of Walt Whitman, Vol. t Ibid., Vol.

I, p.

34.

This

seen, or that,

% Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 34.

that

can be

living in all I, p.

l6.

that

Whitman

This inner hfe

writes.

real greatness of

man, and yet

man.

unknown than known

it

;

unknown

sense

in a

is

it

—

"

Why

known

yes, far

even

all

the

moments

myself,

I

I

often think,

know

or nothing of

little

my

life,

Only a few

hints, a

few diffused faint clews and indirections.*

again he declares,

**

the real

me stands

yet untouch'd,

untold, altogether unreach'd,"t notwithstanding

"arrogant poems."

which

to

more

life.

real

And

makes the

beyond the con-

stretches out

sciousness of any moment, or perhaps of of our

that

it is

that immediately

It is

Yes, this wealth

all

of inner

his

being

other than suns and stars and greater than they,

is

and the consciousness of which Whitman sublimely says should make our souls stand composed and cool before a million universes^

—

the glory of the world

this

itself

it

is

in

which and to which

The atmosphere,"

appears. "

he says (and Berkley could not have said not a perfume, odorless.

it

has no taste of the

my mouth

It is for

forever."

of nature, of earth and air and sky, for it

man

;

it

in his

is

as truly as

it

out of account

"May-be

eyes and

him

contains

the things

—so

impossible to

it is

I

is,

in his

it

better), "

distillation,

is

The pageant

§

he

it

is

feels,

heart

;

a pageant

he contains

you leave him say what it is, that

if

perceive, the animals, plants,

men,

hills,

shining and flowing waters,

The skies of day and May-be these are (as

And "^

night, colors, densities, forms,

doubtless they are) only apparitions,

the real something has yet to be

Ibid., Vol. I, p. 202.

X IbiJ.,Yo\.

I,

p.

322;

^Ibid., Vol. cf.,

rows of buildings ever built."

I Ibid.,

Vol.

I, p.

29.

known," I., p.

||

14.

"That immortal house more than all ("The City Dead House," p. 285.)

II

Ibid., Vol. I, p. loi.

the

8

— which amounts

to saying that

an inner side just as

mistake

man

we judge

if

inanimate nature

—by

perhaps all things have and that we make a huge

of anything

— even

what we

call

Of man him-

the outside alone.

he declares once with remarkable penetration, that

self,

not his material eyes that finally see, nor

it is

" material

body which

covered

life,

is

it

his

finally loves, walks, laughs, shouts,

embraces, procreates."*

—

has,

The

central energy, the undis-

the fathomless depths behind

all

that appears

Walt Whitman; and hence man's peculiar and unique place in what we call that

is

the true man, according to

the universe, hence his transcendent, and, as

Whitman

believed, imperishable worth.

And whether we instinct is

a basis of

man

we know.

ruddy drop of manly blood

The these lines of

or are content to

man on

will question that

the highest form of existence that

To

surging sea outweighs."

Emerson we

all

instinctively assent, nor

there anything in nature that docs not stand lower in

our estimation, and that we the sake of keeping a "

all this,

and sympathy alone, few

"A

is

can follow

our thought of the worth of

rest

Ye

are of

man

thought of man it

not

sacrifice,

It is

or no

man who

use up, for

the old thought,

more value than many sparrows."

did anything great for

sons for

will

alive.

Who

ever

did not have a great

— whether he could

formulate the rea-

?

But such being the greatness of man estimation, everything connected with

sacred significance.

but ""

it is

in Whitman's him has a ray of

The body does not exhaust him,

a part of him, an expression of

Ibid., Vol.

I, p,

146.

him

in this life

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and

of his on the earth spiritualism that

of

too,

it,

sacred.

is

ashamed of the body, or

is

a false

It

is

of

any part

There may be sayings of Whitman that rightfully

it.

we

because

only

offend

but there are other sayings that

offend,

ourselves are not pure and clean.

They

offend the prurient, but not the chaste and the holy.

the legend of our till

we

parents

first

read that

they had sinned that they were ashamed.

Whitman

In

was not

it

When

says,

"Welcome

is

every organ and attitude of me, and of any

man

hearty and clean,

Not an inch nor a

particle of

and goes on with this

may

it is

be bold to those

who

thought and

There

hfe.

vile,"

is

wonderful description of

his

be bold, but

an inch

not bad

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

and

details,

ought not to

it

are innocent and blameless is,

in

of course, a time and place

we do not speak of to two, there may be between every^ one, there are privacies things better felt, experienced, done, than talked about

for everything, there are things

at all (if

speech

but that there

is

and womanhood obscene there

is

;

may

golden, silence

is

anything unclean that there

is

be golden, too);

in distinctive

manhood

anything low, vulgar, or

fatherhood any more than motherhood that anything in begetting more than in being begotin

;

we must cry " Hush," because it is forbidden; that, in short. Whitman, and wrong something that if he erred, erred in more than a question of taste ten,

over which

;

he violated any moral principle

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

this

is

indeed a blasphemous assertion, since

a monstrous it

very order of nature amid which and by which we and,

if

there be an

Supreme Orderer,

Author too.

of this

order,

and

condemns the live,

condemns the

Said an honored minister of a

lO

communion

Christian

and weeded of a

antipodes of purity clean as

—we

should

me

seems to

may

poems

decently taught

— which

at the

is

Walt Whitman

find

This

claim, but with regard to the it

Were we

of our pruriency

Creator." *

the

is

recently, "

little

be too absolute a

have now

I

as

mind,

in

exact truth.

No, we must get a new seriousness about the body, a fresh sense of its part in our life, of its intimate connections with the spiritual part of us. *'

in this

world,

it

It

is

by

is

by

energies that

its

men on

successive generations of

we

the earth,

we

these despised avenues of sense that

continue the it is

through

take the suste-

nance that keeps us alive and eat the bread of God surface appearance, but in

perhaps not

in

meaning,

ourselves, permanent, as

it is

while what

is

excrementitious about

that happens to its

we

this that

flesh" communicate with one another

spirits veiled in

it

leaving

inner undying part.

its

It

traces,

may

Whitman

it

— and

interior

its

thought,

passes away,t

perhaps

its

scars,

be a solemn thing,

all

on

how

we use or misuse our body. Whitman thought so. " Have you seen (he says) the fool that corrupted his own live body? or the fool that corrupted her own live

body

?

For they do not conceal themselves and cannot conceal themselves."

Who

:i:

that has

had the

bitter

experience of shattered

nerves and exhausted vitality that sometimes comes to so-called intellectual

Whitman's language

men and women but is

will

^ Rev. M.

J.

t Complete

Poems and Prose of Walt Whitmany Vol.

pp. 344, 25.

Savage

in

+ Ibhl.,

own

that

no exaggeration, "All comes by

Arena, Sept., 1894, Vol.

I,

p. 86.

p.

450.

I,

p.

147;

cf.,

II

the body, only health puts

you rapport with the uniwould be a leader of men but knows the truth of the words addressed ''To a pupil :"

Who

verse." *

that

" You! do you not see how

it

would serve

complexion, clean and sweet

Do you

to

have

eyes, blood,

?

how it would serve to have such a body and soul when you enter the crowd an atmosphere of desire

not see

that

and command enters with you

For

my

that

Whitman

part, I find

it

difficult

?

"

f

dissent from a

to

word

says about the body.

And woman.

Whitman's great doctrine of individuShe is not an appendage, a tool for man, but his equal.

She has high ends of being as well as he.

With characteristic simplicity and plainness ality includes her, too.

of speech he announces, " I am the poet of the woman the same as the man.

And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man, And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men."

He

I

not afraid to contemplate the enlargement of the sphere of woman. ยง He pictures the great individuals of is

the future training themselves orators larger

and oratoresses." life

woman

;

same

go

public to

in

become

does not fear that the

as the

in

him

is

one

pubHc processions

in

the streets the

men,

they enter the public assembly and take places the same as the

"^

to

He

of citizenship will contaminate and degrade

the great city to

"Where women walk Where

||

''

men."

][

Ibid., Vol. I, p. 265.

t Ibid., Vol. I, p. 302.

X Il^>i^i', Vol. I, p. 45.

I See the successive portraits of women in " Democratic Vistas," Complete Poems, etc., Vol. II, p. 235.

II

Ibid., Vol.

I,

p. 365.

^Ibid., Vol.

I, p.

153.

"

Her shape

he declares

arises,"

in

the wonderful "

Song

of the Broad- Axe," ' '

She

The

less

gross

and

And of

guarded than ever, yet more guarded than ever, and soil'd she moves among do not make her gross soil'd."

'^

yet he never forgets the distinctiv^e "

woman, nor

fails

womanhood

"

to celebrate her in her peculiar offices

He

of wife and mother.

has his recognition of

**

wom-

anly housework," f he celebrates ** the oath of the inseparableness of two together "{ and ''prophetic joys of better, loftier love's

the divine wife, the sweet,

ideals,

comrade." § I do not know what Whitman's private views were and some have doubted whether he believed in marriage, but I see nothing in his poems

eternal, perfect

inconsistent with a recognition of a lifelong union of one

man

He

to one woman as the normal relation of the sexes. speaks with honor of " the chaste husband " and

"the chaste wife,"|| and if he refers to the adulterous "^"^ wish,"1[ "the treacherous seducer of young women, or " the adulterous unwholesome couple,"tt it is plainly w^ith the same feelings that we all have. And of mother'*

erhood no one has written with more feeling or a profounder appreciation. "

O

(he sings)

the mother's joys!

The watching,

the endurance, the precious love, the anguish, the

patiently yielded

Let any one read * Complete Poems

his lines in

I, p.

335.

\\Ibid.,\o\.

I,

156.

XIbid.,\o\.

ybid.,\o\.

'\'\Il>id.,\o\. I, p. 156.

W

Ibid., Vol.

I.

memory

of his

own mother §§

etc.,\o\. I, p. 157.

^

t/<^/^.,Vol.

p.

life.":|:'|

p.

376;

cf..

I,

p. So.

I, p.

132.

IlnJ.,\o\.

I,

p. 147-

-^^//;/V/.,Vol.

I,

p. 215.

'i

XX Ibid., Vol. I, p. 143Vol. II, p. 282, note.

13

or that almost stately picture, recalling a

woman

old style, of " the justified mother of men,"

not doubt Whitman's sensibility

man

felt

of the

and he

''^

will

This

in this direction.

the mystery of birth and the potent spiritual

woman, and he

influence of

celebrates both with holy

reverence.

woman man comes

" Unfolded out of the folds of the

and

is

always

to

come

unfolded,

unfolded,

Unfolded only out of the perfect body of a

woman

can a

man

be

formed of perfect body,

woman

Unfolded out of the justice of the

all justice is

unfolded,

Unfolded out of the sympathy of the woman is all sympathy; A man is a great thing upon the earth and through eternity, but

man is unfolded out of woman; woman, he can then be shaped in

every jot of the greatness of

man

First the

shaped

is

in the

'

himself.

'

f

As Whitman dignity of

He

is

teaches the dignity of the

woman,

body and the

so does he teach the dignity of labor.

a voice of the larger conscience of to-day, and

Who

sings things that were not sung before.

has thought

before of putting the mechanic, the carpenter, the mason,

the shoemaker into song

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

or, if

them not as humble poverty and struggles, but as treating

his fellow-laborers in the

souled democrat

Whitman.

in

poetry

he has, has thought of

folk,

his equals, his

world

?

Not, so

?

Some may have

picturesque in their

Where far as I

* Ibid., Vol.

I, p.

355.

know, before is

Others had the idea

of equality, and perhaps heroically acted on

and

comrades, the great-

struck the note, but here

the full-orb' d chorus of the song.

to the slave (as Lowell

is

VVhittier),

f Ibid., Vol.

I,

it

in relation

but here pp. 302-3.

it

is

a

— 14

How

palpitating reality for every day.

man

common

sings the

lovingly Whit-

men

occupations of

House-

?

building, blacksmithing, nail-making, ship-joining, dockbuilding, fish-curing, stone-cutting, boiler-making, rope-

twisting

—

these and a hundred others appear in his

all

to show that not one honest work of man's hand was forgotten by him or left out of account. With delightful abandon he tells us, lines* as

if

I am enamoured of growing out-doors, Of men that live among cattle or taste of the ocean or wood, Of the builders and steerers of ships and the wielders of axes and mauls, and the drivers of horses, I can eat and sleep with them week in and week out."-|'

'

What

a picture of the harvest field

"Three

scythes at harvest whizzing in a row from three lusty

angels with shirts bagg'd out at their waists." X "

To

teach the average

man

the glory of his daily walk Whitman's represents one of the heights of his ambition yes, he would have ev^ery^ man see that he really does something every woman, too.

And then what a lift he gives us in his view of

and trade"

—

§

this line of

;

;

labor

He

!

seem,

is

it

'

sees that, sordid

'Ah

The

more

than he

near his work

it

may

holding him to God,

is

loving Laborer through space and time."

a child of the Divine, one

might

say^,

||

indeed,

who reproduces

to the formless,

makes

as

httle recks the laborer,

How

Who

and commonplace

kindred to the forces of the universe

the old miracle and gives form and arranges, combines, separates, and

serviceable things for the uses of

* Complete Poems,

etc.,

+ Ibid., Vol. I, p. 67.

Vol.

I,

pp.

I Ibid.,

1

73-4-5.

Vol.

I,

p.

162.

t

man

?

^^ii^-,

\\Ibid.,

Vol.

Vol.

I,

p. 39.

I, p.

157.

15

The

great idea of individuality,

form, becomes democracy. classes, the

It

when

takes poHtical

it

means the aboHtion of

end of obsequiousness, self-respect. The it Whitman sums up in his " Song of

very essence of

when he

Joy," "

O

the joy of a

To be

manly self-hood

!

not to any tyrant

servile to none, to defer to none,

or

To

says,

confront with your personality earth."

all

the other personalities of the

-

A proud, virile spirit

runs through

His word to Americans

is

man's writings.

all this

" the audacity

He

''Resist iimch, obey littley\

extols "the latent right of insurrection." %

He

known

unknown.

He

admires

and sublime turbulence of the states." § men and hold up

says, " Let others praise eminent

peace,

I

hold up agitation and conflict."

Sometimes he

i|

it is never comes near the line There is a deep, sublime motive underlying all he that. and this is, that we are not made for institutions, says but they are ever and laws, good usages and the like forever see to it that must forever made for us, and we We must look into what is called good, they serve us. and see that it is good, we must look into what is called justice, and see that it is justice, w^e must look into law throned on high, and see that it is worthy to be

of bumptiousness, and yet

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

placed there.

Once people become obedient

in the

old

unthinking sense, submissive, imagining that the laws

come from some wisdom * Complete Poems,

etc.,

t Ibid., Vol. I, p. 15

;

Vol. cf.

superior to their own, and there

I, p.

146.

Emerson

in "Politics

"

:

" Good men must

not obey the laws too well."

X Ibid., Vol.

I, p.

17.

'i

Ibid., Vol. I., p. 274.

1|

//;/./.,

Vol.

I,

p. 189.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

an end of

is

liberty,

an end of human development, a

beginning of decadence. us

Does

?

it

apply only to the old world, where kings

and privileged classes are even there as great

the warning unnecessary for

Is

in

What do

cities.

allowed

still

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;though hardly

Look

former times?

some of our amount

at

the forms of democracy

true men, "

when they are dead forms, when men, who their duties know, but know their

to,

men

rights as well,"

hand to animate them ? Is it not tame, meek, submissive beyond pity or sympathy almost, when some

are not on

of our

cities

not the

Is

allow themselves to be ruled as they are of revolt, of rebellion, the proud

spirit

?

spirit

that will not brook the disgraceful practices that are so

common,

we need

the very spirit that

The same might

?

A

be said of some of our Commonwealths. ago, the then

few years

Commonwealth

Chief Justice of the

Pennsylvania used this language at a dinner of the

England Society course, be

made

in

(Allowance must, of

Philadelphia.

for the fact that

it

was an after-dinner

speech; but there was evidently seriousness in "

The

history of Pennsylvania

is

soon

founded by one William Penn, who was proprietary Governor.

it

told.

as well.)

It

was

for a time its

composed of

It is

of

New

iron

and coal

and railroads. The proprietors of this State to-day are Donald Cameron and Matthew Stanley Quay." * J.

Yet this,

at this, too,

we laugh and

Which

submit.

is

better

or the " turbulence," the " insurrection," of which

Whitman speaks ? To my mind, it as Whitman says, that the great city "Where

the

populace

rise

at

is

profoundly true,

is

one

once against the never-ending

audacity of elected persons." f * Chief Justice Paxson, as quoted 2.1

Dec,

'92.

in the

f Coviplete Poems,

etc.,

Philadelphia Public Ledger^ Vol.

I,

p. 153.

Nothing

keeps

else

soul of a people

the

alive.

As

Wendell Phillips used to say, "When there is peace at Warsaw, there is spiritual death." Whitman glories in our industrial age, and yet he never forgets that nothing no inventions, no machinery, no spread of comfort, no perfection of material accomplishment of any kind can

—

—

take the place of self-respecting "

ual citizen.* (until

Thee

in

manhood

in the individ-

thy moral wealth and

which thy proudest

civilization

civilization

must remain

in

vain)," t he says in apostrophizing America.

Yet with

and done, what an

said

all

affection this

prophet of individual rights had for

his country!

not the rampant individualism that

merely self-centered

and

no

feels

celebrates

is

ties.

is

with a larger whole. J

His

is

The freedom he

not license § nor does the insurrection he

preaches the right of mean what that word suggests to the mind.

any grievance,

If there

may

commonly

be insurrection for

had the South a right to secede from the Union, and it was criminal to put the Rebellion down.

The answer to such logic on Whitman's part was his *' Drum-Taps." What fiery real

or fancied, then

energy breathes through them

poem he "

I

!

And

in

almost

his latest

says,

announce

that the identity of these States

is

a single identity

only, I

announce the Union more and more compact, indissoluble." *

'<

I

swear

I

begin

to see the

meaning of these things."

||

Ibid., p. 273.

^ Ibid., p. 350.

X Cf. the

broad and philosophic

tas," Ibid., Vol. II, p. 213, note,

spirit

and

of his words in " Democratic \'is-

p. 219.

Democracy too is law, and of the strictest, amplest kind. Many " Demit means a throwing aside of law and running riot." ocratic Vistas," Ibid., Vol. II, p. 219 and p. 336.) §

•'

suppose that

Complete Poems, II

(

etc.,

Vol.

I., p.

381.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; i8

Addressing the Union

Song

" Without thee neither

Nor

in

those magnificent

The

lines, "

of the Exposition," he says, all

nor each, nor land, home,

mine, nor any here

ship, nor

Our farms, inventions,

crops,

day secure.

this

we own

in thee!

cities

and

States in

thee!

Our freedom

all in

thee! our very lives in thee! " ^

Undoubtedly there must be a spiritual as well as a physical bond, and Whitman most powerfully says this undoubtedly mere constitutions or mere arms are ;

unavailing " Nay, nor the world, nor any living thing

will so

cohere."

But that on occasions law may be used, and the unwilling,

the rebellious, be compelled, he questions quite as

Whitman was indeed

little. t

too great a

freedom

in

seeming extravagance of some of It

action

modern

Law on

his

utterances,

J

He

sang of man

under the laws divine."

form'd

political

movement he

an

" for

The

§

interpreted as Freedom,

one side and Peace on the other.

speaking of America he

||

In

said:

Lo, where arise three peerless stars

'

'

To be

thy natal stars

Set in the sky of It

is

this

etc..

X Ibid., Vol. I, p. 14.

Ibid., Vol.

my

country, Ensemble, Evolution, Freedom,

Law." ^

balance, this equipoise of mind, that

* Complete Poems,

II

The

was a freedom consistent with what

he called " the immortal laws."

with

to be a

which he believed was, notwithstanding the

august freedom.

freest

man

merely any more than a conservative.

radical

I, p.

370.

Vol.

I, p. 'i

164-5.

Ibid,, Vol.

1 Ibid., Vol.

t Ibid., Vol. I, p.

I, p.

9.

350.

I,

p.

makes 247-269.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 19

Whitman great and sane, and prevents his being claimed by the sectarian. He had his strong insistances, yet he saw the place of other things as well.

As Whitman

To him

unmeasured hope.

The

race has gone so

the

to

face

his

sets

progress

go

far, it will

has

he

future,

a law of

is

life.

There

farther.

is

an atm.osphere of divine cheer on his pages, the like of

which matter ' '

hardly

I

in

any

know

in

any modern writer

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or

for that

writer.

In this broad earth of ours,

Amid

the measureless grossness and the slag,

Enclosed and safe within

its

central heart,

Nestles the seed perfection.

By every life a None born but

share or it

is

more

or less.

born, conceal' d or unconceal'd the seed

is

waiting."*

This

Man and

his deep, central thought.

is

are born with an impulse toward

You

cannot label them and say,

nothing more

will

come

this

phrases

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;and even the

much

of them.

amplitude of Time," to use one

of Whitman's

smoke, becomes what we see to-day. in

things

which we

are.

they are and

Give time

''

the

great

mere mist and

primitive nebula,

not a mechanical world,

all

more than they

It

is

a mystic,

There are on deep, and nature, deep live.

fires, energy, hidden away in no plummet can sound them, and no temporary achieve-

ment can exhaust them. universe in which we live. do,

is

it

hearsay with us

It

Do ?

is

a great, solemn, divine

w^e believe this, or, if

Then

let

me

we

say that here

was a man, for whom the belief was a part of his flesh and blood. In an age of surface thinking and of surface */^/r/.,Vol.

I, p.

i8i.

20

and ennui, he stands forth as one of

living, of scepticism

he too Others rest on the past on the past and does not disdain it, but he is ready to go beyond it.

This fair universe is to him a procesthe great beHevers.

;

rests

Speaking of what the past has bequeathed to

sion.'''

us,

he says: "

have

I

pursued

among

it,

own

it

awhile

(moving

admirable,

is

it,)

Think nothing can ever be greater, nothing can ever deserve more than it deserves.

Regarding it all intently a long while, then dismissing it, I

stand in

my

" Outlining

tasks

to

place wnth

my own

day here."

j-

yet to be " J is one of the great mind.

He addresses America, " Thou

what

his

is

Mother with thy Equal Brood," " Belief

I sing, and preparation; and Nature are not great with reference But greater still from what is yet to come, Out of that formula for thee I sing." g

As

He

sang our Civil War, and yet Exposition " he says,

"Away

with themes of war;

"Amelioration

and

in

"The

And

is

one

in the

"Song

away with war

itself

of the

" !

||

of the earth's words, "1 he declares

suffering

gone

yet the progress

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

;

the rank earth purged."*"^'

Whitman

celebrates

the last analysis the progress of souls.

* Complete Prose,

etc..

Vol.

I, p.

II.

\ Ibid., Vol.

T, p.

176.

Vol.

I,

+ Ibid., Vol,

p. 85.

\ Ibid., Vol.

I,

*- Ibid., Vol.

always

is

All he sings,

He

he says, " has reference to the soul." ft

+ Ibid.,

present only,

Mystic Trumpeter" he dares to dream of

"War, sorrow, in

to the

Life

never loses I, p,

20.

Ibid.,Vo\.

p.

347.

II

I,

358.

ft

I^>i<^-,

Vol.

I, p.

I, p.

162.

25.

21

himself in

material

All

abstractions. ress "

is

magnitudes,

in

the progress of single, separate

is

To know

laws

general

or

concrete, individual, and the prog-

the universe itself as a road, as

human many

souls.

roads, as roads

for traveling soids," *

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; such

might be almost called an epitome of his phi" I tramp a perpetual journey (he says in his losophy. homely, yet vivid manner), "

My

signs are a rain-proof coat,

good shoes, and a

staff cut

from

the woods. friend of mine takes his ease in my chair, have no chair, no church, no philosophy, I lead no man to a dinner-table, library, exchange.

But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll.

My left hand hooking you round the waist.

My right hand pointing to landscapes of continents and the public

No I

road."

And " Not

I,

then, not any else can travel that road for you.

You must

A

travel

it

for yourself."

loving, yet stern

and salutary teacher

moving and solemn thought verse

a scene wherein

is

unfold

all

is

we

!

What more

there than that the uni-

grow, to

are placed to

the hidden possibilities of our nature, each

each separately valuable, each separately

for himself,

accountable

not

j-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

yes,

make much

I

of

add it,

this, for

though Whitman does

he does not ignore

it,

and says

something of America that he would doubtless say of each individual: "

If

we

It is

are lost, no victor else has destroyed us. by ourselves we go down to eternal night."

* Complete Poems, X

I bid.,

Vol.

I, p.

etc..

264.

Vol.

I, p.

127.

f Ibid, Vol.

I, p.

'I

73.

22

And of

law of progress, which

this

we know

the law of hfe as

is

Whitman, the law of

to

is,

it,

all life,

the law

the worlds,

all

"Gliding o'er

through

all,

all,

Through Nature, Time, and Space, As a ship on the waters advancing.

The voyage of the soul not life alone,

—

many

Death,

—

this

"If

is

his

you [he says] and the worlds, and

I,

float,

were

it

would not avail

surely go as

There

is

much

may

be different,

farther,

and then

now

so.

of

life,

stand,

farther

and

farther." f

The principle he " However sweet

convenient this dwelling,

words apply

is

Hence the death we dread so much to use his everyday language, "from

what any one supposes and luckier"J is

to a pallid

in the long run.

no stoppage, and never can be stoppage,"

conclusion.

his

beneath or upon

all

moment reduced back

this

should surely bring up again where we

And '*

sing."*

I'll

message.

their surfaces,

We

deaths

applies to

—

all

yes, to his mind,

the varied stages

these laid-up stores, however

we cannot remain

to the last stage as well,

here,"

and

—such

to his rapt

we go, we go, he knows not where we go. but he knows we go toward the best toward something great. § It is a sublime faith, one that nourishes, is good for

vision,

—

the soul.

The climax verse It is

is,

to

of

my

Whitman's thought and of Whitman's

mind, reached

in the "

Passage to India."

not for every day, any more than other things he

wrote are for everybody. * Complete Poems,

etc..

+ Ibid., Vol. I, p. 34.

Vol.

I,

It

is

rather a holy scripture f Ibid., Vol.

p. 218.

^ Ibid.,

Vol.

I,

p.

127.

I, p.

73.

23

new

of the

world, and should be read on stately occa-

sions in church or cathedral. tive levels, the like of

In

it

which do not

he

rises to

imagina-

exist out of the Bible

or of yEschylus. After reading it I know^ why Whitman speaks of dropping " in the earth the germs of a greater religion" *

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

for this

is

religion,

" Swiftly

I

shrivel at the thought of

At Nature and But that

And lo,

I,

its

infinite.

God,

wonders, Time and Space and Death,

turning, call to thee

O

thou actual Me,

soul,

thou gently masterest the orbs.

Thou matest Time,

And

something that takes us

and the

into the realm of the vast

fillest,

smilest content at Death,

swellest full the vastnesses of Space.

Greater than stars or suns.

Bounding O

soul thou journey est forth

Passage to more than India!

Are thy wings plumed indeed

O

for

;

such far

flights

?

voyagest thou indeed on voyages like those

soul,

Disportest thou on waters such as those

Then have Passage

?

?

thy bent unleash'd.

to you,

Passage to you,

your shores, ye aged to

fierce

enigmas!

mastership of you, ye strangling problems!

You, strew' d with the wrecks of skeletons,

that,

living,

never

reach" d you.

Passage

O

to

more than India! and sky!

secret of the earth

Of you O waters of the sea! O winding creeks and rivers!

Of you O woods and fields! of you strong mountains of my land!

Of you O prairies! of you gray rocks!

O morning red! O clouds! O rain and snows!

O day and night, passage to you! * Coviplete Poems,

etc.,\o\,

I, p.

23.

24

O

moon and

sun and

all

you

stars!

Sirius

and

Jupiter!

'^

Passage to you!

Passage, immediate passage! the blood burns in

Away O

my

veins!

soul! hoist instantly the anchor!

Cut the hawsers

Have we Have we

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;haul outâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;shake out every

?

not grovel' d here long enough, eating and drinking like

mere brutes

Have we

?

not darken'd and dazed ourselves with

enough Sail forth

sail!

not stood here like trees in the ground long enough

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

books long

?

steer for the dee;) waters only,

O

soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me, For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go.

Reckless

And we

will risk the ship, ourselves

and

O my brave soul!

O farther, farther sail!

O daring joy, but safe! are they not all O farther, farther, farther sail " y

all.

the seas of

God

?

!

*Cf.,

Socrates'

" Ph?edo: " are;

picture

"The

sun, the

and are blessed

t Complete Poems,

of a possible paradise,

moon and

in all other matters etc.,

Vol.

I,

p.

as

reported

in

the

the stars they see as they really

agreeably thereto."

322-323.

—

II.

THE QUESTIONABLE SIDE OF WALT WHITMAN. In speaking previously of the problematical or even offensive in

Whitman,

I

had not

in

mind

bration of the glory and dignity of the

his frank cele-

human body, but

Those words in praise of the body of the body of man and the body of woman, and those mysterious and supreme functions of the body, fatherhood and maternity may jar on us, may wound our

of a graver matter.

—

sense of propriety,

may make

us feel that while true

they relate to feelings and experiences too sacred and intimate for utterance

properly moral,

;

but they offend no graver, no

sensibilities.

What

I

had

in

mind was

rather things that offend the moral consciousness itself

or at least seem to,

when we

first

come upon them.

It

is

not easy or pleasant to speak of these things, and yet

in

any discussion of Whitman they cannot be left out of and after all our first duty is not to any man,

account

—

name or reputation, but to ourselves and the truth.

Whitman himself wished no blind followers in a great moment he charged that there be no theory or school founded out of him,* and if we do battle with some of his teachings, it is only in the same free, manly or to his

;

* Complete Poe?ns and Prose of Walt Whitman^ Vol. (25)

I, p.

190.

26 of which

spirit,

he was

in the

place so sturdy an

first

illustration.

Suppose that

science or philosophy one said that

in

there was no great difference between truth, that

other,

falsehood and

one should make as much of one as the

and care

for

one as much as the other, surely

there would soon be an end of science or philosophy.

The very meaning of only horror of the

science

scientific

is

the pursuit of truth

man,

as

of science. Prof. Huxley, once said,

I

;

the

think that apostle

is

to believe a

lie.

In the same way morals rests on the antithesis between good and bad. Practically it means a choice, and the very opposite of indifference.

It means rising up out of the life of mere impulse and chance emotion, the life in which we are pulled like mere puppets this way and that (to use the metaphor of Marcus Aurelius), and taking our stand with principles.

When, then, some one says there is no great difference between good and evil, that one is no more important in the universe than the other, that as for himself he can stand indifferent in face of* the

contest going on, that he thinks

it

would be

much

if

it

we

we as

of vices as of virtues, he does not indeed put an

end to morals for

if

make

better

could be relieved of the distinctions, and could

—

for that

is

not so easy to do, the basis

—but

lying rather deep in nature

herself

are innocent and unsuspecting

him, weaken moral convictions

in

enough

our

take moral nerve and stamina out of us.

he does, to believe

own minds and Yet

this is

the

way in which Whitman sometimes appears to speak.

They are only some of the things he says yes, a small part of the total and it were foolish to condemn him

—

—

absolutely on this account and to forget the noble ranges

—

—

—

'

27 of thought of which

I

tried to give glimpses last

yet there they are, and at any

For

stumble on them.

moment you

instance, he says

week

are liable to

:

" Let others ignore what they may, I

make

I

am

the

no

Or

if

—

poem of evil also I commemorate that part also, much evil as good and I say there is in

—

myself as

is, I say it is just as important me, as anything else." *

there to

fact

evil,

to you, to the earth, or

Evil has been ordinarily thought something to be shunned,

avoided, contended with and conquered it is

rather something to be

with the dignity of good not really

that falsehood

could exclaim "

O

to

which

evil,

is

is

truth.

in

very

a word,

much

like

covered

it is

down

set

it is

as

saying in science

wonder, then, that Whitman

:

be relieved of distinctions! !

in these lines

commemorated,

—

No

;

to

make

as

much

of vices as

'

virtues

and again "

What

blurt

is

Evil propels I

Yes, though

this

about virtue and about vice

me and

reform of evil propels

stand indifferent." f

Whitman took

pains in later

life

to tell us

noble language that liberty was not license, J he cele-

in

brates outright sexual lawlessness in I

?

me

two poems, which

should be almost ashamed to read to you and he should

them he recalls one of those ''free unions" between man and woman, which false apostles of liberty nowadays are preaching the right of, and in which Whitman was appahave been ashamed to have written.

•*

Complete Poems

t Ibid., p. 46.

and

In one of

Prose of Walt Whit?Han, Vol. X Ibid., Vol. II,

I, p.

p. 336.

22.

28 rently not above indulging himself in his early days.

In

the other he pictures himself going to a brothel, not to

win and to save, but to partake there, to share in the

in the loose delights

midnight orgies

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

to

show, forsooth,

that he was no better than the inmates, to make himself If there is no difference between what is their poet.* pure and what is vile, then so let it be and let us have done with .talking of ethics, conscience and the rest but if there is a difference, if there is any meaning to right and wrong, if there are any "immortal laws" such as Whitman elsewhere speaks of, safe and forever unhurt, ;

however men may disobey them,

if

in the natural divine

order of things the union of the sexes means, as Whit-

man commonly

himself implies, fatherhood and mother-

hood, and the responsibilities of the same, and not a mere riot

of the senses, then

Moments

"

the eyes of

How was

man

it

can

such a poem as " Native

is

an almost unpardonable offense, a scandal

we

explain such utterances as these,

possible that they should have

as

I

I

(2) a certain unthinking,

universe

?

have been able to get thus

say three causes co-operated

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;only a

:

(i)

how

come from such a

have before portrayed to you

the best hght

in

right-minded men.

all

According to far, I

should

sympathy with men

unmoral way of looking

;

at the

part of his total view, and having noth-

iag necessarily to do with

of his function as poet.

it

;

and

(3) a peculiar

Let us take these up

theory

in order.

first and most honorable cause to Whitman was sympathy with men. It is impossible to doubt this sympathy.

It shines out on every page he has written.

He took all men into his embrace with a wealth of affec-

The

his

* Complete Poems and Prose of Walt IVhttmau, Vol.

I, p.

94.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 29 tion that

and which of

the like of in literature

difficult to find

it is

tenderness and

in its

its

range recalls the

Man

Love and Sorrows who would have gathered the together

Jerusalem

of

children

travagant to say

but

this,

read in Whitman,

I

hen gathereth

a

as

under her wings.

her chickens

may sound

It

ex-

you read and read and

if

come

think you will

to feel that

it is

not more than the truth. " Stranger,

if

me and

you passing meet

me,

desire to speak to

why should you not speak to me ?

And why should I not speak to you ? " *

How and I

simple and truly

Sympathy with

!

with the average man,

file,

know

human

how

real

it

is

Dead," and

Books,"

**

sympathy

is

To

ever whether

we can

who

through the surface

merely actual, and

find

it is

so

difficult,

love men, despite their

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

is

not so

good and noble, of things, and all that is are not

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ah, that

we

Mil-

yet the test of our

and treasure the

that are in every one

because

And

"The

never get into the

will

love the good, the noble

but to love those

;

to pierce

good

The Real War

Specimen Days.\

in

badness. difficult

with him!

of few things more pathetic, that more go to the

heart of hearts within us, than passages like lion

the rank

call

it

is

possibilities

of

not so easy, and

divine.

Now

it

was

by following along this path of universal sympathy that Whitman was in part led to those strange and repellant He loved men, and he utterances we are considering. loved

all

men, whatever

weaknesses,

failings, vices

their character,

or crimes.

whatever their

In

this, too,

perpetuates the heart of the Christian tradition. * Complete Poems t Thiii

Vol

TI

and Prose, .

Vol.

I, p.

l8.

he

But

30 there in

one thing that has always to be borne

is

mind

in

connection with sympathy, one thing that Christianity,

Jesus, never forgot.

what

despite

man

can a

may

is

It

evil in

of conscience

love the sinner and

to save him, but

proval for

we should

that

is

them, not because of

love

men

Never

it.

We

show sympathy with sin. go over earth or through

we can never have

hell

other than disap-

you cease to have disapproval, conyou and you become a mere mush of If

sin.

science dies in

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

sentiment, without

without

light,

any great divine reason

yes, without

dignity,

To

for love.

celebrate

man and

the better possibilities of man, however for the time he

may

be hardened and degraded,

take what

is

low and

to evil the praise of

always

to the true

law of his being, to

as

were high, to give

treat

good

it

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

if

this is

it

never

in order,

it

has any effect at

not remember this

;

all).

heart,

and

Whitman apparently

did

he said things that another, with the

yet with keen conscience said.

is

(so

whole wealth of sympathy which was could not have

and

man

never done save with injury and debasement to far as

To

in order.

celebrate the very things in

celebrate wickedness, to

which man goes counter

is

Whitman's

in

as well, simply

There were elements

in

Whitman's

nature that seem to have drowned conscience at times.

And

this

is

why we have

to contend with him, as well

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

him contend with him as man with man, and show that however great he was, there was a summit of

as admire

greatness he did not reach.

And

this

is

why

unqualified

comparisons of him with Jesus, as are sometimes made, Imagine Jesus' sympathizing with outcast will not do.

women cannot.

so that he was willing to riot with

them

!

You

Or sympathizing with them so that he could

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 31 celebrate their riotousness or

can you imagine

make poems

is

in point for

who

that made Jesus Nor have those (and

the this

give one sort of extenuation for

and baseness was necessary he should sometime or other have been evil and base

under the influence of Jesus

in

little

sin,

Whitman) who have been rescued from that

As

No, it was this sympathy with sinners along with

that he was.

those

!

wonderful

a mighty strenuousness about

man

it

this, either.

balance, this boundless

great divine

of

order to save them.

evil

that

felt

it

They have been

rather strength-

ened, braced by the thought that, though tempted

in all

we are, he was without sin it is this that has made men and women revere him as I fear after all they never can Walt Whitman and this, too, that has points like as

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

however they may have sinned themselves, sin is not necessary or normal to the There is inestimable inspiration in the thought race. added

to their conviction that

that one

man, however

far

away

in history

in face of all the temptations that

himself upright in

him

can beset

he was not

he lived a recluse, sequestered

because and solely because the will for strong

in

men keep

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; upright, not because there was nothing

to respond to evil, not because

not because

he was, did

him

that

it

overtopped

because he

mastered temptations, because though he lived

world he was superior to the world. rians

may

but

good was so

else,

all

tried,

life,

Critics

in

and

the

histo-

give us reasons to doubt whether Jesus was

so completely without sin, but the thought of this spotless victor

has had

and simply anyone.

and

It

women

its effect

and

its

as a thought cannot

remains to be seen will

charm

all

the

same

move and charm how many sinful men

fail

to

be reclaimed by Whitman's telling them

32 that he participated in their sin it

and honoring

in

it

song.

—

by

yes,

his celebrating

have no doubt that

I

his

influence will be beneficent on the whole, greatly benefi-

cent

—but

I

think

these things.

human

love

it

will

thing, the supremely

drowning

be

because

spite of, not

in

of,

Sympathy unruled by conscience, strong unguided by what is after all the master

light

human

man

thing, in

and overwhelming

—

light

distinctions

—a

love

;

divine

made almost less than human because not consomewhat else equally divine this, I take it, is partly responsible for the extraordinary utterances we have been considering. Whitman himself once makes a thing

—

joined with

striking observation about religious fervor

Even

*'

love.

in

passage) there

is

religious

and emotional

fervor (he says in a prose

a touch of animal heat.

But moral

conscientiousness, crystaUine, without flaw, not God-like only, entirely " Great

is

human, awes and enchants forever." Again: But there is

emotional love.

something greater love,

;

and even genius

serenest

ceeds

"

.

.

.

.

.

.

and, after remarking that power, tried

by

subtlest analysis

moods somehow fail and become vain Then noiseless, with flowing steps,

** :

By

the sun, the last ideal comes. tice, truth,

we suggest but do not

world of men

But no dream

it

names

describe

is it

to the wise

in

the lord,

right, jus-

it.

remains a dream, an idea as they

only solid lasting thing of master!

the

and

—he proTo call

the it.

— but the proudest, almost

all." *

Sublime words,

O

and had you always remembered them, there

are perhaps

some things you would

not, could not,

have

written.

But there was another co-operating cause. *** Democratic Vistas," in Co?npleie Poems,

etc.,

By

nature

Vol. II, p. 248.

—

33

Whitman was

of a cheerful, buoyant, optimistic mood.

He

the legend

hked, as

in

Jahweh

He " is

done

said to have

is

of old, to look out on creation and pronounce

good.

all

it

loved the trees, animals, the very grass. with the spring waters, laughing and skipping and running,"*

I

one of

his

joyous

How

lines.

hard to admit

in

such

mood that there is anything wrong in the universe how much easier to say, I accept all, worship all, all

a

divine. ful

mood, and yet perhaps few of us

blissful

moment

it

evil or

Now

are impossible!

this,

which

some happy,

known

sorrow or death

We

it.

—and say they

a purely emotional

is

could be translated into prosaic thought, would

read somewhat as follows: There the things

in

of our lives have not

could almost deny

state, if

is

not a very deep mood, not a very thought-

It is

we

call evil

the right point of view;

anything else

—

it

has

its

sin

is

place,

no

is

evil in the

when looked

are good,

world;

at

from

good

after all as well as

is

part of the whole,

it

and the whole being good, every part of

it is,

too;

why,

make sour faces over sin, why not celebrate it, why not make poems of it ? May not what is called conscience be a sort of disease, an awry way of looking at things, and is it not the healthy way to look at things

then,

as nature does, accepting

all,

giving sunshine to

all,

or

as the earth does, which never complains or argues or threatens, or as the placid animals do,

or whine about their condition," or

dark and weep

for

their sins,"

altogether

?

is

—

* Complete Poems,

etc..

Vol.

I, p.

19 1.

lie

never

awake

**

sweat in

the

and simply ignore moral

Such f easy way looking at things, an distinctions

who ''

a possible

and

it

is

^Ibid., Vol.

way

of

evident that I,

pp. 177-54.

— 34

Whitman

to

some extent fell into it. When we have a we of course want to justify it for as reasonable is rational or not, we want

—

a view,

feeling,

whether

it

beings to give

it

an aspect of rationality

—and one

of the

most interesting and amusing things I know of in literature (and one of the very few amusing things in Whitman and all the more so, because he evidently saw

—

nothing funny about

He

Truth." *

poem prose

poem

a

it) is

says, to put

one of Whitman's that

is

of his called *'A11

in plain

it

is

prose

grow

that does not

lie

is

the

more than

little

— he says he has discovered that there

form of

—and

no lie or upon itself

is

as inevitably

This would be thought a people, most and would suggest by conclusions not merely of the temporary but of the permanent harm of falsehood. But Whitman says, seeing that lies are subject to the law of cause and effect, springing from something and in turn producing some-

upon

as the truth does

itself.

pretty serious truth

thing

a

lie,

—

that

that

are no

is,

its

that in one sense there

is

no lying about

results are inevitable, therefore really there

lies at all

and

all is

truth without exception, and

hence, as he concludes "

I

will

And I

know

I see or am, and laugh and deny nothing."

go celebrate anything sing

not which to admire most

—the

charming sim-

plicity of this conclusion, or the rare logic

up to

The

it.

fact

is,

it

is

which leads

a foregone co7iclusio?i with

—

and I am reminded of what Goethe somewhere said of another great vitalizing force in our cen-

Whitman

tury, Byron, namely, ''Sobald er rcflcctirt * Complete Poems,

etc.,

Vol.

I,

p. 361.

ist

er cin Kind,''

35 ('*As soon as he begins to reflect or reason he

And

child").

thoughtless hilarity,

this

Whitman, nor

is

it

part of his total view of

more than an though it be a

life,

characteristic, as the rest

is

mood

always the

not

is

really

attracted particular attention

The

Hke a

is

yet this promiscuously approving mood,

of

insignificant

part that has

and perhaps

peculiar,

is

not.

made

third co-operating cause that

possible the

morally trying sayings we are considering, was his peculiar

view of

"

his function of poet.

Whitman once writers, who have anything to in

a confidential

mood

Most

poets," said

to a friend,

most

**

say, have a splendid theory

and scheme and something they want to put forth. I, on the contrary, have no scheme, no theory, no nothing

—

in a

sense absolutely nothing."

said

his

Now

*'

anything

''Almost

friend.

nothing"

*'Just let 'er go,

that,"

may is

— anything, that

is,

that the poet

and

I

real to him,

may

out with

harbor for good or bad,

I

It

may

indifferent thing,

anything that it.

prompted

is

communicate.

be a noble thing or a shameless thing vivid

part of him, he "

Whitman.*

replied

be a good thing or a bad thing or an that

" ?

these connections generally means

in

to say, that he feels impelled to

it

eh

To quote

—anything

is

honestly a

his

own

lines:

permit to speak at every hazard,

Nature without check with original energy, "f **

Nature without check "

— that

worth, then, of utterances that

is

The

Walt Whitman.

come

in

this

way

alto-

gether depends on what the nature happens to be that is

uttered.

the world * In Re

:

If

it is

good

;

a noble nature, the utterances will do

if it is

Walt Whitman,

a base nature, they will do the

p. 312.

f Poems

and

Prose, Vol.

I,

p. 29.

36 world

Not

evil.

world

will turn a

world

is

did

all

the genuineness or sincerity in the

Now

bad thing into a good thing.

the

power and splenenergy of Whitman had behind him a nature of fortunate in that a poet of the

exceptional greatness and nobility; and

pours forth

quoted

infinitely richer for this

is

he

this that

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

last

impulses

'tis

some of those well-nigh matchless hnes I week the world of ideas and of higher

in

But he had,

man's having lived

in

it.

he was not

too, his weaknesses, apparently

without some measure of experience in shameful things,*

and to give

tJicm

back to

us, to recite these things, to dis-

play this side of his nature, not with shame, not with humiliation,

but with perfect nonchalance,

not fortunate for the world,

Whitman himself not say

it is

Confession

heroes

Let

me

not bravado,

if

or for anybody,

not be misunderstood.

good

is

acknowledge

for the soul

torn the veils

their sins.

moving and purifying as where he says,

in

I

find

honor

I

I

do

we have done.

well to hide the wicked things

who have

is

nor for

all

those

from themselves and nothing but what

Whitman's own

is

self-confessions,

^Cf. John Burroughs, quoted in Bucke's Walt Whitman,

p. 23, and Walt Whitman, p. 314. The Nation, reviewing Thos. Donaldson's Walt Whitman the Man, 21 Jan., '97, p. 55, says: 'After he came to Camden, his life, whatever it had been, was altogether clean and sweet.

As to his earlier life Mr. Donaldson quotes his confes-

Dr. Bucke in In

Re

:

*

John Addington Symonds, that it had been jolly bodily,' with and permanent attachment; the second of these phrases being, of course, a paraphrase of Whitman's bill of particulars."

Peter Doyle says, however, of Whitman's Washington days: "I never knew a case of Walt's being bothered up by a woman. In fact, he had nothing special to do with any woman except Mrs. O'Connor and Mrs.

sion to '

*

episodes of passion

Burroughs.

came clean.

His disposition was

into his head.

No

'

trace of

about him those years

different.

Walt was too

Woman

in that

sense never

clean, he hated anything that

any kind of dissipation

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; we were awful

in him.

close together."

I

was not

ought to

Calamus,

know p. 25.

37 " Nor

you alone who know what it is it was to be evil,

is it

I

am

I

too knitted the old knot of contrariety,

to

be

evil.

he who knew what

Blab'd, blushed, resented, lied, stole, grudg'd.

Had guile, anger, lust, hot wishes I dared not speak, Was wayward, vain, greedy, shallow, sly, cowardly, The wolf, the The cheating

malignant.

snake, the hog not wanting in me. look, the frivolous word, the adulterous wish not

wanting.

Refusals,

postponements, *

hates,

these wanting " I

find

meanness,

laziness,

none

purifying,

I

of

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

nothing but what

is

moving and

say,

for on the face of it it shows that it is no sympathy with the evil things portrayed.

But confession that contains no disapproval of the thing

such confession,

in

said with

confessed, confession that rather reverts to

and celebrates

ure,

can one

call

it,

"And

Whitman once "Give me

says

another matter

is

confession

it

?

it ;

with pleas-

indeed,

how

Can one confess

retain the offense "?

:

the drench of

my

passions, give

me

coarse

life

and

rank.

To-day

I

go consort with Nature's darlings, to-night

too.

I

am

I

night orgies of young men, dance with the dancers and drink with the drinkers,

for those

The echoes Is

this

who

believe in loose delights,

I

share the mid-

ring with our indecent calls." f

confession

?

Who, indeed, can explain such way than simply as a revelation

a

in any other one side of the nature of the man, the whole of which he felt it his right to celebrate, reckless of what anybody

passage

^ Complete Poems and Prose of Walt WhitmaJt, Vol, f Ibid., Vol.

I,

p. 94.

I, p.

132.

of

38 it or of the harm it might do ? * No, conhowever full and frank it is, must be tinged with the spirit and the desire revealed in Tennyson's words

thought of fession,

:

" Not ev'n

The

in

inmost thought

made

sins that

to think

must breathe the sadness that one

It

own "

I

when he

tones,

again

the past so pleasant to us."

says,

measureless shame and humiliation of

feel the

The simple

fact

passages here

is

Whitman's

feels in

that

it is

in question,

my

not necessary to 'admire the is

it

not necessary to defend

them

or justify or even to excuse

man's own theory of the matter

;

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

it

I

mean on Whit-

is

no more neces-

sary to do so than to defend or justify the actions of

race."f

which they are the

copies.

speaks simply as nature prompts

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

If

a

moods or

man

says he

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; using nature to mean

any impulse within him then it is a matter of accident whether what he says is worthy or unworthy we are few of us without impulses, that if they were left unruled, would not make us beasts and if Whitman sings the low sometimes as well as the high, we can simply so far leave him out of account, pass him by, ;

;

forget him,

remembering thankfully

much

the soul, and

permament value

is

of

himself says that

it is

else,

so

the

same time that uplifts

Whitman to man. who admire him and know him best, he admits

not those

vauntingly praise him that ^

at

much more,

that he gives us so

what he says of himself in writing anonymously of his own poems: He audacious and native use of his own body and soul. must recreate poetry with the elements always at hand.

He must imbue Cf.

"

He makes

it

with himself as he

Whitman^

is,

disorderly, fleshy

p. 14.

t Co7nplete Poevis,

etc..

Vol.

I., p.

358.

and sensual."

In Ke:

Walt

39 and it is for us as free what is good in him and reject what is bad, just as we do with any other person.* And I sometimes think that the best antidote to what is of questionable influence in Whitman's writings is to be found in Whitman himself. There are things, not that he contains contradictions,

men

to take

merely of the sort

I

referred to last week, but others,

and temper and

that are inconsistent with the spirit

whole mood of what It is

evil that

I

am now

we cannot say

evil

have been referring to to-day.

I

of course understood that

say that anything

it

speaking.

is of moral good and Of any other kind of

positively that in nature,

is

it

Who

evil.

can

even lightnings and floods,

human

or that any constituent element in

cluding the appetites and passions

—who

nature, in-

can say that

even sorrow and disappointment and pain and death are

No, there

evil.

can say

is

only one thing

is

absolutely

evil,

the world that

in

and that

the evil will

is

we

— the

lies, cheatings, murders, adulteries, and the whole noisome brood of vices and crimes just as the immortal Kant said that there was only one thing absolutely good in the world (or even out of it), and that was the good will. One may approve the universe and the great order of things amidst which we live, and disapprove sin.

There is a place and a time for everything

source of

;

in the

there

world

is

—

for

everything but the

no time and no place

an absolute

—

it is

evil will

blot, in this fair world.

things *

came

Co77iplete

human

to be

is

history

for that

There never was a wrong not from

—

place for selfishness, for injustice, for

the beginning of

;

an anomaly, an outlaw,

till

now.

How

these

a question for science and philos-

Poems and Prose of Walt Whitman, Vol.

I, p.

98

.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 40 ophy, but however they came to be, we must,

if

there

be any meaning to conscience, disapprove of them.

The

mark

practical

comes

a true moral nature hence

of

The

to be struggle.

the elements, have

stars,

may be Man is

perhaps learned to do their work, and there nothing to add to or to subtract from them. still

learning to do

learned

is

and the man who has

his,

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not

struggle

some

Now we

are not to imagine that

time, but not yet

of this graver side of

fully

There may come an end to

not yet here.

He was

life.

for most, at least.

Whitman was unaware not always this pro-

miscuously-approving, preferenceless, all-receiving and

man

nothing-excluding kind of

quoted

that the passages

outset might suggest to us.

at the

he believed that

all

was

right as

it

is,

If,

how

I

indeed,

could he

have preached the gospel of insurrection as he did

and cramps and fact is, Whitman was never equally receptive to the varying and contradictory qualities of men, save momentarily when

insurrection

against

all

that

thwarts the free energies of

under the influence of a accepting the world in

its

binds

man ?

false

The

sympathy.

totality,

Instead of

he really only ac-

it in his deeper moments, and said that was transitory, with no permanent reason for How profound a being, and destined to pass away. thought is that which he expresses in the following

cepted a part of all

else

:

" Roaming in thought over the Universe,

good

And

the vast

saw the

I saw hastening and dead." *

all that is call'd evil

and become

How can then * Complete

I

httle that

is

steadily hastening towards immortality,

lost

evil

Poeffis

and

have the place

in

to

merge

itself

the world that good

Prose of Walt Whitman, Vol.

I, p.

2l6.

41 has

If

?

as important to the world as good,

is

it

not preserved and

it

perpetuated?

Whitman does indeed reckon Satan the world

good

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;but

Satan

much opposed

good hastening

Does

Whitman with strait

Is

it

possible,

consciousness

full

gate " and

He saw

think he had.

that is

we

says this

?

have a glimpse of the old deep truth

he, too, then,

about the "

little

immortality, the vast all that

to

called evil hastening to pass away.

ask, that

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the

to

And

as to oppression, falsity in the form of good.

then observe the extraordinary language is

why is poem

as an eternal part of

there not so

is

In another

*'

the narrow

way ?

"

Yes,

I

what was so real and palpamost men was in another sense not real at all, and that what seems unreal, but ''a dream, an idea," to many, is the supreme reality. Out and away from the that

ble to

noise and glare and false bustle and false democracy

of to-day he could pass with easy tread into the sacred temple of ethics and religion. He knew what Isaiah and the

all

known

great have

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that

one

regal in the world, ''right, justice," and

dust and ashes before

when he

is

it.

in

all

the rest

Never does Whitman

his real self, in

does he waver

thing alone

homage

is is

hesitate,

before this, never

choice of that good above

all

other

good.*

With

this

illumination, other things take

place in his estimation.

He

their

due

sings himself, "

Walt Whitman, liberal and ItTsty as Nature," f yet he knows in his moments of insight that Nature is after all no model for us and in a confession which is pathetic when we read * A way of reconciling this attitude with the actuality and even neces;

he offers in asserting that the bad and vicious wi/t sometime take their place in the true order of things.

Idle/., Vol. I, p. 331. sity of evil

t Co7nplete Poems,

etc.,

Vol.

I, p.

299.

— 42 lines, that more than once he felt temporary depression for fear that in " Leaves of Grass " the moral

between the

were not

parts **

all

pronounced, he adds that

sufficiently

while the moral nature, there

the purport and last intelligence of

is

absolutely nothing of the moral in

is

the works or laws or shows of nature.

..."

*

I

some-

times think that there are visible signs, particularly in

what he wrote amid the stirring crisis of the war, of the struggle between that simply receptive attitude toward nature which he sometimes shows, and on the other hand his sense of laws and ideals beyond all that nature can

"

teach.

Now we

go

he wrote

forth,"

in

those

great days, "

Now we

go forth to receive what the earth and the sea never gave us." f

"An the

idea only and yet furiously fought for," he

flag. J

Of slavery he

says, " Slavery

treacherous, conspiracy to raise

it

—

says of

the murderous,

upon the

ruins of all

the rest, "

On and on

Of politicians this

"

at

grapple with

to the

Washington

in

it." §

the old ante-bellum days,

:

Who

What

are they as bats

a

Are those Is that

and night-dogs askant

filthy Presidentiad!

.

.

Congressmen

really

the President

?

Then

these States sleep"

language which

—

recalls

I

in the capitol!

.

?

are those the great judges

will sleep

awhile

yet, for

I

?

see that

1|

what Michael Angelo once wrote

of his beloved Florence * Preface

to

t Complete

Edition of 1876, Vol. II, p. 284 n.

Poems

+ Ibid.,\o\.

I, p.

etc.,

^

228

Vol.

I, p.

229.

§ //;;>/., Vol.

I,

p. 268.

Ibid.yo\.

II

I, p.

218.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

43 " 'Tis well

to slumber, best to

be of stone,

While shame endures and Florence

Nor were

He

contests those of

all

does

forget and

not

come

mortal strain of nations not war," f and as

spirit,

when

he has

§

at last in

prosperous peace,,

war was over he besought its wander on in his verse, to leave to him

live

sympathy always. He ;

Whitman's mind. " the tug and

that

the

With noble struggle he

"pulses of rage." J

ready "

to

not free." *

half conscious of his temptations to

if

in easier paths, to its

war

says

is

*'

has "

makes great requirements

in

songs of stern defiance ever

heroic angers

" ;

||

he betrays a scorn

The progress he

of temporizers, patchers.

is

believes in

:

"AUons! yet take warning!

He

travelling with

None may come

me to

needs the best blood, thews, endurance, trial till he or she bring courage and

the

health.

Come

if you have already spent the best of yourself, Only those may come who come in sweet and determin'd bodies,.

No diseas'd person, no rum-drinker or venereal taint is permitted

not here

here."

Yes,

Tj

Whitman

addresses the evils that have overcome

him, degradations, tussle with passions and appetites,,

meannesses, broken resolutions

"Ah

think not you finally triumph,

my

real self has yet to

come

forth,

march

It

shall yet

It

shall yet stand

And souls,

forth o'ermastering, till all lies beneath me. up the soldier of ultimate victory." **

so in words that are like a " steel bath" to our

he says

* Dr. T.

W.

:

Parsons' translation.

% Ibid., Vol. I, p. 253. t Complete Poems, etc., Vol. I, p. 350.

Ibid., Vol. I, p. 273. \ Ibid., Vol. I, p. 125. \ Ibid., Vol. I, p. 270.

II

"^^ Ibid.,

Vol.

I,

p. 364.

—

44 -" Weave in, weave in, my hardy life.

Weave yet a soldier strong and full for great campaigns Weave in red blood, weave sinews in like ropes." *

No,

man

this

to

come,

believed in struggle and that there was

something to struggle

He

for.

juggles occasionally

in

make out that falsehood makes no when it comes to practice he is as clear

the vain effort to difference

" Henceforth

as day. " for

yet

;

we have seen

no man of us

let

he says,

lie,"

that openness wins the inner and

outer world, and that there

is

no single exception and

that never since our earth gathered itself in a mass have deceit or subterfuge or prevarication attracted

He knows

particle." f

tist

that there

and not one word or deed, he says, but has

yond death

as really as

its

small-

a moral order,

is

results be-

He

before death. J

acknowl-

edges a standard '

it

'All that

forwards perfect

human

'

life

'

§

is.

"

Law

he says

own

of thyself complete, thine

in a

track "

own

track firmly holding," ||

noble apostrophe to the locomotive.

—

yes, there

is

a track, and off

it

is

*'

Thine

disaster.

He

roundly declares, " The difference between sin and goodness is no delusion." ^f It is a deep view of life that

is

—

and whether it Whitman's optimistic view of immorevery one, however he may have stood the test

thus suggested, a grave view

consistent with

is

tality for

of

life, I

will

not undertake to say;

* Complete Poems,

it is

too great a sub-

^/r.,Vol. I, p. 365.

"[Ibid., Vol. II, p. 272.

X Ibid., Vol.

I, p.

290.

I Ibid.,

Ibid., Vol.

I, p.

359.

\\Ibid., Vol.

II

Vol.

I, p.

I, p.

160,

335.

cf.

181.

—

— 45

But that the

discussion now.*

ject for

greatness and of immortality are in

possibilities

of

men, even the

all

—

most degraded and seemingly lost this I firmly I join in Whitman's solemn language

believe.

And

Nothing

• '

If

is

sinful to us outside of ourselves,

we

are lost, no victor else has destroyed us. by ourselves we go down to eternal night." f

It is

Nations come to an end and individuals may, but

it

not by anything that happens to them, but by their

own

willing refusal to follow the track

by

marked out

is

them,

for

own rebellion against the immortal laws. sum up by saying that, as with so many

their

So

I

other

Walt though the surface may strike the eye more, the deeper side it is that moves the soul. And there is one merit in all the things, even in the worst and that is, he never assumed, things Whitman wrote Much may be forgiven a man, he never pretended. men, there

Whitman

a surface and there

is

is

a deeper side to

—and

—

somewhere says, who has perfect candor. % make the bad things good things but there

—

ness

it

Much,

is

forever

too,

think,

I

as Whitman Whitman

*The p. 213.

evil

is,

also

is

one base-

of falsehood.

man who

forgiven a

perhaps more

y^?>y

Can character be fixed?

a result so soon

Also close of

fully enslaved, its

that

loved

himself said that his poems might do not

question

"Such

may be

from,

does not

loved.

only good, but

closing,

delivered

It

"The

no nation,

— and

City

state, city

Cf.

evil

"A Hand

Mirror,"

from such a beginning! "

Dead House,"

p. 285.

than

Also,

Vol.

of this earth, ever afterwards resumes

liberty," p. 15.

t Complete Poems,

etc..

Vol.

I,

I,

"Once

p. 264.

% Ibid,, Vol.

II, p. 272.

46 good.*

And

good

?

That

cess

of selection,

judge,"

is

they is

may do

impossible.

evil

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;but

And by

which time,

" the

more

evil

than

a beneficent pro-

only

righteous

ever conducting, the evil things will be gradu-

and forgotten, and the good things, the great things will remain, to long bless and ennoble and cheer the hearts of men. ally lost to sight, buried

* Complete Poems

and Prose of Walt Whitman,

Vol.

I, p.

98.

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