THE FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE 225 
upon which Whitman’s poems are projected, and 
accounts for what several critics call their sense of 
magnitude, — ‘‘something of the vastness of the suc- 
cession of objects in Nature.” 
“T swear there is no greatness or power that does not emulate 
those of the earth! 
I swear there can be no theory of any account, unless it corrob« 
orate the theory of the earth! 
No politics, art, religion, behavior, or what not, is of account, 
unless it compare with the amplitude of the earth, 
Unless it face the exactness, vitality, impartiality, rectitude of 
the earth.”’ 
Or again, in his ‘‘ Laws for Creation: ” — 
“ All must have reference to the ensemble of the world, and the 
compact truth of the world, 
There shall be no subject too pronounced — All works shall 
illustrate the divine law of indirections.”’ 
Indeed, the earth ever floats in this poet’s mind 
as his mightiest symbol,— his type of completeness 
and power. It is the armory from which he draws 
his most potent weapons. See, especially, ‘‘To the 
Sayers of Words,” “This Compost,” “The Song of 
the Open Road,” and ‘‘Pensive on her Dead gazing 
I heard the Mother of all.” 
The poet holds essentially the same attitude to- 
_ wards cosmic humanity, well illustrated in ‘Salut 
au Monde: ” — 
“ My spirit has pass’d in compassion and determination around 
the whole earth; 
I have look’d for equals and lovers, and found them ready for 
me in all lands; 
I think some divine rapport has equalized me with them. 
*O vapors! I think I have risen with yon and moved away to 
distant continents, and fallen down there for reasons; 
