204 BIRDS AND POETS 
been held in abeyance or restricted to other chan- 
nels, there is still sap and fecundity, and depth of 
virgin soil in the race, sufficient to produce a man 
of the largest mould and the most audacious and 
unconquerable egotism, and on a plane the last to be 
reached by these qualities; a man of antique stature, 
of Greek fibre and gripe, with science and the mod- 
ern added, without abating one jot or tittle of his 
native force, adhesiveness, Americanism, and de- 
mocracy. 
As I have already hinted, Whitman has met with 
by far his amplest acceptance and appreciation in 
Europe. There is good reason for this, though it 
is not what has been generally claimed, namely, that 
the cultivated classes of Europe are surfeited with 
respectability, half dead with ennuz and routine, 
etc., and find an agreeable change in the daring 
unconventionality of the new poet. For the fact 
is, it is not the old and jaded minds of London, or 
Paris, or Dublin, or Copenhagen, that have acknow- 
ledged him, but the fresh, eager, young minds. 
Nine tenths of his admirers there are the sturdiest 
men in the fields of art, science, and literature. 
In many respects, as a race, we Americans have 
been pampered and spoiled; we have been brought 
up on sweets. JI suppose that, speaking literally, 
no people under the sun consume so much confec- 
tionery, so much pastry and cake, or indulge in so 
many gassy and sugared drinks. The soda-fountain, 
with its syrups, has got into literature, and furnishes 
the popular standard of poetry. The old heroic 
