THE FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE 231 



Lincoln, and that of the scenes in Washington after 

 the first battle of Bull Eun. What may he called 

 the mass-movement of Whitman's prose style — the 

 rapid marshaling and grouping together of many facts 

 and details, gathering up, and recruiting, and ex- 

 panding as the sentences move along, till the force 

 and momentum become like a rolling flood, or an 

 army in echelon on the charge — is here displayed 

 with wonderful effect. 



Noting and studying what forces move the world, 

 the only sane explanation that comes to me of the 

 fact that such writing as these little volumes contain 

 has not, in this country especially, met with its due 

 recognition and approval, is that, like all Whitman's 

 works, they have really never yet been published at 

 all in the true sense, — have never entered the arena 

 where the great laurels are won. They have been 

 printed by the author, and a few readers have found 

 them out, but to all intents and purposes they are 

 unknown. 



I have not dwelt on Whitman's personal circum- 

 stances, his age (he is now, 1877, entering his fifty- 

 ninth year), paralysis, seclusion, and the treatment 

 of him by certain portions of the literary classes, 

 although these have all been made the subjects of 

 wide discussion of late, both in America and Great 

 Britain, and have, I think, a bearing under the cir- 

 cumstances on his character and genius. It is an 

 unwritten tragedy that will doubtless always remain 

 unwritten. I will but allude to an eloquent appeal 

 of the Scotch poet, Kobert Buchanan, published in 



