204 BIEDS 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 ennui and routine, 

 etc., and find an agreeable change in the daring 

 unconventionality of the new poet. Eor 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. I 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 



