68 SYLVAN SECBETS. 



Naturalists tell us about highly specialized 

 animal forms — those that have departed most 

 from the prototype. There is a figure here 

 with which great genius like Shakespeare's 

 may be represented — the old, simple, univer- 

 sal human mind. Shakespeare was not a 

 specialized man, he was a specimen left over 

 from the ancient virile race long since wor- 

 shipped as gods. Walt Whitman consciously 

 and with great labor has tried to be such a 

 specimen— he has tried to stand for mankind, 

 but his great assumption of virility is vox et 

 pretercct nihil save in a few splendid excep- 

 tions. 



At last it is Shakespeare's sincere and per- 

 fect love of his race, his brimming humanity, 

 his commanding simplicity, his courage, his 

 abounding sympathy, his liberality, that will 

 always draw men to him. We speak of per- 

 sonal magnetism when we mean a man's 

 power to influence his fellows. This magnet- 

 ism of manhood exhales from all the works 

 of genius, and especially from those of Shakes- 

 peare. Walt Whitman asserts for himself in 

 rude and almost brutal phrasing what Shakes- 

 peare never claims, but always has to over- 

 flowing—the vigor and rugged self-sufficiency 

 of the primitive man. 1 have noticed that all 

 grand men assert themselves with irresistible 

 force but always without noise or contortion 

 or bluster. A steadfast eye, a calm face, a 

 quiet manner, an even voice. The gods turned 

 men to stone by a glance. The clouds and 

 storms are always far below the serene blue 

 sky in whose depth the empyrean fire steadily 

 burns. 



Coming to the study of Shakespeare with- 

 out any taint of literary snobbery, and wholly 

 free from mere hero-worship looking upon 



