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Caption: Magazine - English Club The Illinois (1907)
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cently disregard. The hater of a convention is a poor weapon against it. He does not lessen its effectiveness by setting himself opposedly over against it (except in the case where the convention is wrong, not mere folly) for that is likely to arouse the ire of its followers. He must go ahead on his own way, and show no sign of being drawn to it or repelled from it. Whitman has a vast deal of self-restraint in this regard. He strongly disapproved of the false modesty that damns the confession of bodily delights, but he does not go out of his way to strike at it. In Children of Adam he would have ranged himself on the side of prudes as the Arch-Prude if he had left out of his poem the power of sex, so potent in the lives of all the Children of Adam. He touches upon it in passing with no sign of anything but that calm oriental gravitv which the literature of the West needs badly enough, good people know. Whether future writing will be much influenced by Whitman's attitude toward this matter, is still a mooted question. The fact, however, t h a t many critics of today can write of this phase of Whitman's genius calmly and judiciously proves that something has already been done in the right direction. A t least, an intelligent public is no longer outraged at the mere suggestion of sex topics, and perhaps eyes are beginning to be opened upon a saner outlook. One aphorison of Whitman we must never lose sight of while we are trying to make an estimate of h i m : "Dominion strong is the body's; dominion stronger is the m i n d ' s . " Remember that when you hear him assailed as a materialist. Remember that when you hear him cried out against as an exalt or of the body at the expense of the soul. Remember that [35
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