216 BIRDS AND POETS 



muting them into strong poetic nutriment, and the 

 extent to which all his main poems are grounded 

 in the deepest j)rinciples of modern philosophical 

 inquiry. 



Nearly all the old literatures may be said to have 

 been founded upon fable, and upon a basis and even 

 superstructure of ignorance, that, however charming 

 it may be, we have not now got, and could not keep 

 if we had. The bump of wonder, the feeling of the 

 marvelous, a kind of half-pleasing fear, like that of 

 children in the dark or in the woods, were largely 

 operative with the old poets, and I believe are ne- 

 cessary to any eminent success in this field; but 

 they seem nearly to have died out of the modern 

 mind, like organs there is no longer any use for. 

 The poetic temperament has not yet adjusted itself 

 to the new lights, to science, and to the vast fields 

 and expanses opened up in the physical cosmos by 

 astronomy and geology, and in the spiritual or intel- 

 lectual world by the great German metaphysicians. 

 The staple of a large share of our poetic literature is 

 yet mainly the result of the long age of fable and 

 myth that now lies behind us. "Leaves of Grass" 

 is, perhaps, the first serious and large attempt at an 

 expression in poetry of a knowledge of the earth as 

 one of the orbs, and of man as a microcosm of the 

 whole, and to give to the imagination these new and 

 true fields of wonder and romance. In it fable and 

 superstition are at an end, priestcraft is at an end, 

 skepticism and doubt are at an end, with all the 

 misgivings and dark forebodings that have dogged 



