THE FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE 215 



nay, behind every page that is the main purport, 

 — to outline a ]^ew World Man and a New World 

 Woman, modern, complete, democratic, not only 

 fully and nobly intellectual and spiritual, but in the 

 same measure physical, emotional, and even fully 

 and nobly carnal. 



An acute person once said to me, " As I read and 

 re-read these poems, I more and more think their 

 inevitable result in time must be to produce 



' A race of splendid and savage old men,' 

 of course dominated by moral and spiritual laws, 

 but with volcanoes of force always alive beneath the 

 surface. " 



And still again: One of the questions to be put 

 to any poem assuming a first-class importance among 

 us — and I especially invite this inquiry toward 

 " Leaves of Grass " — is, How far is this work con- 

 sistent with, and the outcome of, that something 

 which secures to the race ascendency, empire, and 

 perpetuity? There is in every dominant people a 

 germ, a quality, an expansive force, that, no matter 

 how it is overlaid, gives them their push and their 

 hold upon existence, — writes their history upon the 

 earth, and stamps their imprint upon the age. To 

 what extent is your masterpiece the standard-bearer 

 of this quality, — helping the race to victory? help- 

 ing me to be more myself than I otherwise would? 



Ill 



Not the least of my poet's successes is in his 

 thorough assimilation of the modern sciences, trans- 



