202 BIRDS AND POETS 
that even the animals found fellowship with him, 
and the pigs understood his great heart. 
It was the large endowment of Whitman, in his 
own character in this respect, that made his services 
in the army hospitals during the war so ministering 
and effective, and that renders his ‘ Drum-taps ” the 
tenderest and most deeply yearning and sorrowful 
expression of the human heart in poetry that ever 
war called forth. Indeed, from my own point of 
view, there is no false or dangerous tendency among 
us, in life or in letters, that this poet does not offset 
and correct. Fret and chafe as much as we will, 
we are bound to gravitate, more or less, toward this 
mountain, and feel its bracing, rugged air. 
Without a certain self-surrender there is no great- 
ness possible in literature, any more than in religion, 
or in anything else. It is always a trait of the 
master that he is not afraid of being compromised 
by the company he keeps. He is the central and 
main fact in any company. Nothing so lowly but 
he will do it reverence; nothing so high but he can 
stand in its presence. His theme is the river, and 
he the ample and willing channel. Little natures 
love to disparage and take down; they do it in self- 
defense; but the master gives you all, and more than 
your due. Whitman does not stand aloof, superior, 
a priest or a critic: he abandons himself to all the 
strong human currents; he enters into and affiliates 
with every phase of life; he bestows himself royally 
upon whoever and whatever will receive him. There 
is no competition between himself and his subject; 
