VII.—The Larger Man I announce a great individual, fluid as Nature, chaste, affectionate, compassionate, fully armed. I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold. Not to chisel ornaments, But to chisel with free stroke the heads and limbs of plenteous supreme gods, that The States may realize them walking and talking. Think of manhood, and you to be a man; Do you count manhood and the sweets of manhood nothing? Whitman "promulges" (a favorite word with him) an ideal of manhood no less than of womanhood. Many ideals are so far removed from the practical real that one can recognize no relationship between them. Whitman, however, while the divinest possibilities are not too exalted to have place in his ideal, drives the foundation piles so deep in the solid ground of robust, physical energy and hardy, full-blooded activity that one can believe in the substantial character of any superstructure he cares to erect upon such a foundation. He exalts the body and all that suggests its highest vigor. He adores man, the animal, before he does homage to man, the thinker, or man, the spiritual conqueror. Primitive roughness is more to him than the veneer of the exquisite dandy. Washes and razors for foofoos-for me freckles and the bristling beard. He wants that man should inure himself to “run, leap, swim, wrestle, fight—to stand the heat or cold-to take good aim with a gun— to sail a boat-manage horses—to beget superb children—to speak readily and clearly—to feel at home among common people-to hold his own in terrible positions on land and sea. Not for an embroiderer. (There will always be plenty of embroiderers. I welcome them also.) But for the fiber of things, and for inherent men and women. Browning frequently shows this exquisite realization of health. With Whitman it is fundamental. If anything is sacred, the human body is sacred. And the glory and sweet of a man, is the token of manhood untainted. And in man or woman, a clean, strong, firm-fibered body, is beautiful as the most beautiful face. The following is his conception of man as he should be in native qualities: His shape arises. Arrogant, masculine, naive, rowdyish, Laugher, weeper, worker, idler, citizen, countryman, Saunterer of woods, stander upon hills, summer swimmer in rivers or by the sea. Of pure American breed, of reckless health, his body free from taint from top to toe, free forever from headache and dyspepsia, clean-breathed, Ample-limbed, a good feeder, weight a hundred and eighty pounds, full-blooded, six feet high, forty inches around the breast and back. Countenance sun-burnt, bearded, calm, unrefined. Reminder of animals, meeter of savage and gentlemen on equal terms. Attitudes lithe and erect, costume free, neck gray and open, of slow movement on foot. Passer of his right arm 'round the shoulders of his friends, companions of the streets. Persuader always of people to give him their sweetest touches, never their meanest. A Manhattanese bred, fond of Brooklyn, fond of Broadway, fond of the life of the wharfs and the great ferries. Enterer everywhere, welcomed everywhere, easily understood after all, Never offering others, always offering himself. Surely when an ideal of high character is grounded upon such sturdy, wholesome manliness it will not appear so illusory and unreal as do many visions of perfection. Walt Whitman draws the man he seeks as fit for "These States," in magnificent outline, but even the most exalted traits are filled in with such human shading that we forget that it is an ideal and not any prosaic individual with whom we daily touch elbows. The impression gained by the many eulogies of the rough and unrefined would be misleading alone. It is the genuineness he insists upon, and loves honest coarseness rather than an artificial coating of insincere polish. The refinement which comes from gentleness of feeling and spontaneous good will he values supremely. "Behavior" is his favorite word for this natural outshowing of the true man or woman. Behavior-fresh, native, copious, each one for himself or herself. Nature and the Soul expressed- In it the finest art. In it pride, cleanliness, sympathy to have their chance. In it physique, intellect, faith-in it just as much as to manage an army or a city, or to write a bookperhaps more. The youth, the laboring person, the poor person, rivaling all the rest-perhaps outdoing the rest. The effects of the universe no greater than its; For there is nothing in the whole universe that can be more effective than a man's or woman's daily behavior can be, In any position, in any one of these states. There is little in this to help out a catechism upon the rules of etiquette, but a sufficient statement of great principles to found a school of expression-indeed, an entire system of education fit for the unfolding centuries. The wider selfhood is the inclusive outline of his conception of human character. As we have previously seen, this taking into himself of all things, all men, all experiences, is the key to this poet's characteristic work. He believes it the ground work of all large life. Two poems are specifically an expression of this conviction. In the poem "Him All Wait For" or "Song of the Answerer," more than all other qualities is emphasized this of all-embracing absorption. "Every existence has its idiom, which he translates into his own tongue. All divergences which seem to contradict, "he sees how they join.' He says indifferently and alike, "How are you, friend?" to the president at his levee, And he says, "Good day, my brother," to Cudge that hoes in the sugar field. And both understand him, and know that his speech is right. Every one, no matter what his occupation, believes he is of the same calling-authors, laborers, sailors, soldiers-each group feels |