Camden's Compliment to Walt Whitman - Various

Grainger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building.

You're managing all of them.

And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners.

Lights about to fail, filters ready to clog, HVAC on its last leg.

If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind.

Count on Grainger for quality products, easy reordering, and 24-7 support.

Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by.

Grainger, for the ones who get it done.

Your next unforgettable experience can happen anytime.

Take an Amex card with you for rewards wherever you go.

Morning coffee run with an old friend? Earn cash back.

Weekend getaway? Earn miles.

Amex rewards your inner explorer.

Learn more at AmericanExpress.com.

Terms apply.

It's summer clearance time at Scandinavian Designs Furniture.

Save up to 70% on clearance furniture and accessories.

Plus, enjoy special savings on new arrivals, outdoor favorites, and more.

Whether you're updating a single room or refreshing your entire home, discover your next great find, from bold statement pieces to decor that completes the look.

But hurry, these deals are only available for a limited time.

Stop by a local showroom or shop online at ScandinavianDesigns.com. Scandinavian Designs.

We make it simple.

You make it home.

SECTION I. AUTOBIOGRAPHIC NOTE.

AT THE COMPLIMENTARY DINNER.

AND TO WALT WHITMAN.

AUTOBIOGRAPHIC NOTE FROM AN OLD REMEMBRANCE COPY WAS BORN MAY 31, 1819, IN MY FATHER'S FARMHOUSE AT WEST HILLS, LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK STATE.

MY PARENTS FOLKS MOSTLY FARMERS AND SAILORS, ON MY FATHER'S SIDE OF ENGLISH, ON MY MOTHER'S, VAN VELSORS, FROM HOLANDIC IMMIGRATION.

There was first and last a large family of children.

I was the second.

We moved to Brooklyn while I was still a little one in frocks.

And there, in B, I grew up out of the frocks.

Then, as child and boy, went to the public schools, then to work in a printing office.

When only sixteen or seventeen years old, and for two years afterward, I went to teaching country schools down in Queens and Suffolk Counties, Long Island, and boarded round.

Then, returning to New York, worked as printer and writer, with an occasional shy at poetry.

1848 and 9 about this time went off on a leisurely journey and working expedition my brother jeff with me through all the middle states and down the ohio and mississippi rivers lived a while in new orleans and worked there have lived quite a good deal in the southern states after a time plotted back northward up the Mississippi, the Missouri, etc., and around to and by way of the Great Lakes, Michigan, Huron, and Erie, to Niagara Falls and Lower Canada, finally returning through central New York and down the Hudson.

1851-54 Occupied in House Building in Brooklyn for little of the first part of that time in printing a daily and weekly paper.

1855.

Lost my dear father this year by death.

Commenced putting leaves of grass to press for good, after many manuscript doings and undoings.

I had great trouble in leaving out the stock poetical touches, but succeeded at last.

eighteen sixty two in december of this year went down to the field of war in virginia my brother george reported badly wounded in the fredericksburg fight for eighteen sixty three and sixty four see specimen days eighteen sixty five to seventy one had a place as clerk till well on in seventy three in the attorney-general's office washington new york and brooklyn seem more like home as i was born near and brought up in them and lived man and boy for thirty years but I lived some years in Washington, and have visited and partially lived in most of the western and eastern cities.

1873 This year, lost by death, my dear, dear mother, and just before my sister Martha, the two best and sweetest women I have ever seen or known, or ever expect to see.

same year a sudden climax and prostration from paralysis had been simmering inside for several years broke out during those times temporarily and then went over but now a serious attack beyond cure dr drinkard my washington physician and a first-rate one said it was the result of too extreme bodily and emotional strain continued at washington and down in front in eighteen sixty three four and five i doubt if a heartier stronger healthier physique ever lived from eighteen forty to seventy My greatest call, Quaker, to go around and do what I could among the suffering and sick and wounded, was that I seemed to be so strong and well.

I considered myself invulnerable.

Quit work at Washington and moved to Camden, New Jersey, where I have lived since.

And now, September 1889, write these lines.

a long stretch of illness or half illness with some lulls during these latter have revised and printed over all my books brought out november boughs and at intervals travelled to the prairie states the rocky mountains canada to new york to my birthplace in long island and to boston but physical disability and the war paralysis above alluded to have settled upon me more and more the last year or so walt whitman

at the complimentary dinner camden n j may thirty first eighteen eighty nine walt whitman said my friends though announced to give an address there is no such intention following the impulse of the spirit, for I am at least half of Quaker stock, I have obeyed the command to come and look at you for a minute and show myself face to face, which is probably the best I can do.

But I have felt no command to make a speech and shall not, therefore, attempt any.

all I have felt the imperative conviction to say I have already printed in my books of poems or prose, to which I refer any who may be curious.

And so, hail and farewell, deeply acknowledging this deep compliment with my best respects and love to you personally, to Camden, to New Jersey, and to all represented here, you must excuse me from any word further Verbatim reprint of his own slip.

See page 22.

To Walt Whitman, from some younger English friends, on his 70th birthday, 31st May, 1889.

Here health we pledge to you in one draft of song, caught in this rhymer's cup from earth's delight, where English fields are green the whole year long.

the wine of might, that the new-come spring distills most sweet and strong in the viewless air's alembic that's wrought too fine for sight.

Good health, we pledge that care may lightly sleep and pain of age be gone for this one day, as of this loving cup you take and drinking deep are glad at heart straightway.

To feel once more the friendly heat of the sun, Creative in you, as when in youth it shone, And pulsing brainward with the rhythmic wealth Of all the summer, whose high minstrelsy Shall soon crown field and tree, To call back age to youth again, And pain to perfect health.

EARNEST REES.

LONDON.

1889.

gathered here as if sharing one with another a sacred presence children in common of an event in which as we run we may read lustrous omens our addresses letters and briefer greetings pitched in various heart-tones which combine to what has proved a great social rather than literary or artistic effect No record of Walt Whitman can be extricated from its human entanglements.

Walt Whitman can never be rendered in special explanations.

Notable in his friendships has been his breadth of resource, and remarkable, therefore, in this compilation in its exhibition of variety.

It's summer clearance time at Scandinavian Designs Furniture.

Save up to 70% on clearance furniture and accessories, plus enjoy special savings on new arrivals, outdoor favorites, and more.

Whether you're updating a single room or refreshing your entire home, discover your next great find, from bold statement pieces to decor that completes the look.

But hurry, these deals are only available for a limited time.

Stop by a local showroom or shop online at ScandinavianDesigns.com. Scandinavian Designs.

We make it simple.

You make it home.

You want another boring cheeseburger? You can get one anywhere.

They're all exactly the same.

But if you want meat and cheese done right, there's only one place to go.

Arby's, we have the meat.

Arby's all-new cheesesteak is made with 100% Angus steak, slathered in melty Cooper cheese, and piled onto a toasty sesame seed roll.

It's a sandwich you've been waiting for.

Bye-bye, cheeseburgers.

Hello, Arby's cheesesteak.

Arby's, we have the meat.

We make it simple.

You make it home.

To apologize for so pregnant a characteristic would be to turn shamefaced from Walt Whitman's first quality.

A few special notes would seem pertinent at this point.

The addresses from Henry L. Bonsall, Hamlin Garland, and Lincoln L. Eyre, though exigently crowded out of the list at the banquet, demand and are accorded place in this chronicle.

while a portion of the letters received in season were read and many of them were printed in the local papers some few even entered into general circulation it has been left for this vehicle to present a comparatively perfect collection of the messages contributed some of the letters and telegrams which appear were sent direct to walt whitman some few to divers members of the arrangement committee and the main bulk to me the greetings from abroad while naturally coming in their own time often after the event enter by born credentials into honor and position it has not been so much the purpose in this publication to charge the banquet direct with exclusive possession of the day as to bring together using the banquet as rallying-point the really remarkable salutes hastened from all quarters in europe and america both to walt whitman and to his friends in charge of the celebration Reproduced now in Union, they suggest that a power, the most solid and significant in the poetic history of our time, is back of Walt Whitman's fame.

The specification of sources alone strikes those with wonder who have slightingly or insufficiently known his clientele.

It is to give shape and permanency to such testimony that this volume is produced.

after it was definitely decided to celebrate walt whitman's birthday by some sort of public meeting and after the question of the nature of that meeting had been settled urgent and careful preparations were at once begun originating with a near group of walt whitman's friends who conceived clearly the appropriateness of such an inclusive acknowledgment there was no intermission of labor until the achieved event itself satisfied them that their plans had been wisely laid Several business meetings were held.

A committee composed of H. L. Bonsall, Thomas B. Harned, Jeffrey Buckwalter, Alex G. Cattell, Louis K. DeRuse, E.

A. Armstrong, Wilbur F.

Rose, and Cyrus H. K. Curtis, all local men, was entrusted to the executive work.

A circular describing the purpose in view was was signed by h l bonsall and thomas b harned and liberally issued indistinguishably to near and remote parties walt whitman was well aware of most that transpired the circumspection that his physical condition imposes assumed in our eyes at this period a special importance lest by some unforeseen turn he should be kept away from the meeting and we thereby miss the crown of the feast there arose details which from time to time were referred to him fortunately for the completeness of the event so much depending upon his physical condition may thirty first hailed him refreshed from a good night's sleep and made that certain which up to the last moment had raised a natural solicitude the day was warm and capricious but in the hours of his transit there was no storm and nature smiled on us even from clotted brows morgan's hall with its plain portals never before had lent itself to an occasion as large and radical as this had every man gone there without one articulated word shaped to the purpose to those who knew by and for what this celebration was caused and to the world that will one day insist upon confessing its lax hospitality there floods a significance that lifts the spirit into high regions who but caught the sniff of victory in the air let the mind's eye run along the line of events from that far year eighteen fifty five to the hour of this latest gathering from the earliest tracings of walt whitman's inimitable sweet courage when the world held its nose afraid to smell of the natural divinities when tradition broke with its rough sword into the very song of the poet along the evidence of the gradual achievement of friends the yielding point by point of the protests of error and antipathy the clustering and fiery admonitory speech of great souls early to greet the world's new summoner of o'connor ample in speech and life free from all invitations of freedom in his great brother spokesman and so liberal of the joy of liberty that the world almost feared as the world always does the first note of release his jubilant song he in some respects the largest the most intrepid the most unswerving spirit in the literature of the age of Burroughs, the philosopher of woods, who came upon Whitman as upon a divinity of the fresh solitudes that drew and enjoined, and who from the day that awoke him has been calmly steadfast to his glorious vision.

These things, and many others closely related, have not only done much to give direction to literary genuineness, but have vastly affected the general history of America.

The full power of the influence will not in our day be perceived this evening however radiant hints of it were written upon the walls curved in and out the folds of the pendant flags and shared the miracle of the vines along the tables that bore the feast a wise forethought prompted the choice of early evening running from five o'clock on as best serving the convenience of hosts and guests many came markedly before the suggested hour to linger along conversationally into the general proceedings as cannot be too clearly understood this was not designed to be and was not a mere craft dinner celebrating a literary consummation to one who belonged in the district the familiar faces of townsmen were right and left these townsmen were lawyers officials commercial authorities assembled out of the everyday interests of the place and formed the bulk of the diners in the half-hour that preceded the banquet the upper rooms of the building arrayed notable groups and served as a broad field for introductions the drink on the table the negro attendants the assiduity of the committeemen still gravely solicitous were minor facts to remember the irrepressible reporter was at work with the first arrival Richard Watson Gilder, Julian Hawthorne, Hamlin Garland, and other distant comers, were distinctly centers of interest.

Here were men prominent in the political life of Philadelphia, men known in her courts, men engaged in her large trade enterprises, and interested in her philanthropies.

And observantly intermingling with all these, editors who kept in the background of apparent participation, but who had come leaving all but eyes and ears at home.

From across the river were also a dozen figures of young men doing handiwork in a rising literature.

And not unnoted, John Foster Kirk, veteran in his own right and veteran by memory of the great Prescott.

not to mention at all yet not to spare johnson of new york gloriously devoted beyond any statement that could be made here mackay explicitly now whitman's publisher who will be best remembered for his connection with whitman after the period of the osgood ignominy harrison s morris one of the newer men whose service and recognition has been a growing quantity let me pass on naming half a dozen who stand very close to whitman and deserve more than a casual deference gilchrist for one who now happily in america could give from british lips as if out of generous memory of his famous mother a tender of the unfailing british remembrance of whitman for another francis howard williams loyal in whitman's first years in this latitude when to be loyal and an affectionate host served an imminent need and was a title of nobility and still more clifford himself a philosopher product of new england's best influences out of his profound knowledge of the human side of literature realizing and incessantly proclaiming whitman's true stature among the prophets while confirmed in all convictions by his affectionate personal contact with the seer and here too harned whose faith and service grow not only of proximity but of natural tendencies has been an unbroken testimony and bonsall through many years of journalistic experience missing no opportunity for the frankest espousal of whitman and buckwalter who with the other adjacent two had laboured so ardently to protect and to further this celebration the predominating activity of these men through everything that transpired into an atmosphere of personal affection this had been a guarantee invoked from the first whitman himself was not to come to share the feast he needed to husband his strength he was more necessary to the success of the after addresses following the chat of the groups in the reception rooms that resulted upon a whispered hint which quickly circulated a quiet flow of people to the hall below three tables had been spread two almost the full length of the floor and one crossing them at the head set apart for those who were to speak and so arranged that any speaker could at once face the whole line of the guests The music on the platform, the banners on the walls, the flowers on the table, a bouquet at each plate, and clusters here and there, united to enrich the impression of the hour.

Yet nothing was elaborate, and there was no ostentation.

On the menu card, a phototyped portrait of Whitman, stood felicitously alone, without name or word to any effect.

and within opposing or uniting influences, foodstuffs ranged as the feast of reason, and matters of speech as the flow of soul.

The afternoon was warm.

The wax tapers gleamed with persistent uncertainty.

The winds out of doors kept up a rather ominous melody.

Everyone had it in mind that, after all, this was interim, that the real message-bearer was yet to come, and that in our dining we were merely halting on a journey.

with this consciousness everywhere prevailing an hour passed good humour was plenty and talk was free was walt whitman sure to come penetrating all else this was upon questioning lips and passed like a charge from man to man walt whitman was sure to come yes by and by the hint was given that he had been sent for then after the lapse of ten minutes or so interspersed with further murmur all around the room a policeman's cry almost inaudible near the door he's coming the intelligence rapidly spread every man turned napkin in hand expectant and absorbed chair and guest carried together upstairs by two capable policemen were wheeled into the hall whitman's canadian friend and nurse edward wilkins guiding whitman responded at once to the intense but infusive reception by removing his hat and waving it right and left the whole audience risen to its feet but saying nothing gave him a reverent welcome How deep that moment of silence! Not till later on were the cheers given, but when given they were given several times, and vehemently.

Once Mr. Corning arose with humorous deliberation, and said it was on his conscience that we ought to give three cheers for Walt Whitman, and three better cheers than followed never greeted any man.

but now on his entrance the first to accost whitman was a colored woman assisting with the culinary apparatus who rushed impetuously at him i thought whitman's initial expression a wearied one but he was composed and not slow in getting his place at the head of the room at this juncture there was a spontaneous clapping of hands after which a general resumption of seats The guest kept his own chair, which was wheeled up against the table.

At his right, in order, were Gilder and Gilchrist, at his left, Gray, the chairman, Garland, Hawthorne, Garrison, and Clifford.

Harned, Williams, Bonsall, and Eyre were at the long tables.

It was interesting to note that Walt Whitman, who had come to stay fifteen minutes to half an hour, stayed from two to three hours.

There is no doubt but that the aspect of the assemblage inspired and invigorated him.

while it was true in the best sense that the occasion owed everything to him it was also true in another and minor sense that he was indebted to it for at least part of his present almost exhilaration for, looking down the long line, the almost crowded tables, it was a subtle influence caught out of each face, a pervading living quality in each eye, that for the time being, and, as I believe, for days afterwards, perhaps as lasting even to-day, electrically imparted strength and glow to heart and limb.

For this was the year 1889. the city was one not famous in general or literary annals and a deference which if prophesied for walt whitman a quarter of a century ago would have been deemed preposterous now issued out of the most unpretending environment so comes a prophet at last who defeats the old proverb and this walt whitman must in some measure have recognized for he is a man whom mere appearances never deceive a man who measures good and ill with the same calm austerity.

Now the speaking commenced.

The placid chairman, Samuel H.

Gray, came first with his address of welcome.

Walt Whitman's little speech was brought in as a response to this, and as a general message for those, whether present or absent, who had thought well to recognize the day.

Then were introduced, in their order, not exactly as announced on the program, but as they are now placed, Thomas B. Harned, Gilbert H. Gilchrist, Francis Howard Williams, John H. Clifford, Charles G. Garrison, E.

A. Armstrong, Richard Watson Gilder, and Julian Hawthorne.

As the addresses progressed, the scene warmed.

Along down the hall men sat sideways against the tables.

It's summer clearance time at Scandinavian Designs Furniture.

Save up to 70% on clearance furniture and accessories, plus enjoy special savings on new arrivals, outdoor favorites, and more.

Whether you're updating a single room or refreshing your entire home, discover your next great find, from bold statement pieces to decor that completes the look.

But hurry, these deals are only available for a limited time.

Stop by a local showroom or shop online at ScandinavianDesigns.com. Scandinavian Designs.

We make it simple.

You make it home.

You want another boring cheeseburger? You can get one anywhere.

They're all exactly the same.

But if you want meat and cheese done right, there's only one place to go.

Arby's.

We have the meat.

Arby's all-new cheesesteak is made with 100% Angus steak, slathered in melty Cooper cheese, and piled onto a toasty sesame seed roll.

It's a sandwich you've been waiting for.

Bye-bye, cheeseburgers.

Hello, Arby's cheesesteak.

Arby's.

We have the meat.

Thank you.

It's summer clearance time at Scandinavian Designs Furniture.

Save up to 70% on clearance furniture and accessories, plus enjoy special savings on new arrivals, outdoor favorites, and more.

Whether you're updating a single room or refreshing your entire home, discover your next great find, from bold statement pieces to decor that completes the look.

But hurry, these deals are only available for a limited time.

Stop by a local showroom or shop online at ScandinavianDesigns.com. Scandinavian Designs.

We make it simple.

You make it home.

the reporters all clustered in the foreground many smoked cigars chairs were tipped everything appeared untrammelled after the momentary expression of weariness whitman's whole manner changed to an absorbed ease he dealt affectionately by a special bottle of champagne that was brought him his own speech which he had printed on slips and of which with an interlined edition he gave me copies liberally for the reporters was read while not powerfully with a beautiful simplicity ease and sweetness his part from that time forward was the part of a child sentiments that touched him and the utterances of others drew forth little exclamations of attention or approval or even of dissent he threw his own presence out of a striking objectivity sometimes he would applaud with his bottle there on the table strangely to-day he was black-coated the glory of his hair dispensed with a forced nimbus in front of him had been set a basket of exquisite flowers out of which selecting special samples which he again and again raised to his nose he seemed to take much enjoyment it was characteristic of him that several times having messages to deliver he signalled me across the hall seeing him so comfortable the guests were eased social tyrannies relaxed taking air of whitman's presence there prevailed the port and ring of an exquisite freedom the controlling vocal manner was a rich union of the elements of perception and emotion which as a characteristic is perhaps unprecedentedly remarkable in living in walt whitman's works and in the man himself he has since remarked i was averse to the public dinner at the outset but said i should let the boys have their own way and so the boys had their own way and whitman rescued the occasion by being one of the boys himself details running into his little interposed remarks are barely possible here there was no break in the proceedings as long as he remained had he stayed till midnight the rally of his friends would have continued

but that was not to be

we were singularly and unexpectedly blessed in holding him as long as we did he kept his place till hawthorne had spoken and ingersoll's telegram delivered to me in the hall and read by clifford had had its strong and pithy effect his desire to withdraw was quickly though not formally communicated to the meeting he slowly arose from his chair gilder and i helped him on with his big blue wrapper every man was on his feet in an instant the chairman standing in the centre of a thick group said he would ask george pierre who was present and who is known for much odd and piquant experience in journalist clubs to lead off with a song with auld lang syne if that could be and pierre responding the melody struggled from lip to lip and finally broke out into a choral power that even elicited whitman's contribution then whitman sat down in his chair again gave quiet response to the hurried special congratulations of familiars and others who crowded about him and was slowly wheeled out of his narrow quarters his basketed flowers put in his lap and so taken home for days after kept place and odour on the stove in his little parlour one hand and another one solicitous face and another was bent upon him with its eager comradeship but the chair was kept on its way parting the crowd gently and in the end reaching the door and passing out into the lobby not so proclaimed this was still the dropping of the curtain again the policemen did their special and cherished service will it be a reminiscence for the ears of children's children soon was whitman gone into the night all attempts to reorganize the meeting were fruitless Within five minutes following Whitman's departure, the great mass of people had left the hall, and efforts to read letters and telegrams were therefore mainly fruitless.

Whitman gone, the meeting had gone with him, as though a more than Hamelinic pipe had been played.

No one lingered but the assiduous reporters, who, though the first to come, were the last to leave.

I was asked the other day, Is it left for you to sum up the event? But what need to sum up that which, rather than being fragmentary, was at once a direct and entire story? Camden, honoring Walt Whitman, was more than Camden.

For through Camden the world had voice, and that world not the world of a more or less petty and undiscriminating today, but the world that our poet, in his noblest moods, has invoked.

camden had risen to its spiritual gifts breaking away from concrete tyrannies camden in this act bore testimony that walt whitman prophesying a grander america and wearied and worried by no scholastic chastisement was to be rendered just tribute at last extravagant as it may seem to say so this banquet would not have had half the significance given strictly by authors or made exclusively literary fortunately it was not what would be called a literary occasion rescued from a restricted it was rendered to the greater america What one town, in the sense that includes all classes, may do today, a developed America and a free Europe will ultimately compound in sharing on their vaster areas.

But whatever the extent of recognition, the type of recognition will remain what it was this day to the simple and single constituency.

Except for the absence of women and of the distinctly mechanical classes, the unconstrained infelicity of the event was from beginning to end as generous as the spirit of the man it was aimed to celebrate.

O'Connor said of Walt Whitman in 1866, To the hour of judgment, to the hour of sanity, let me resign him.

however near or remote the arrival of that inevitable sunrise this record may be taken with reference to it as a substantial contribution where thirty years ago men scorned to seriously discuss walt whitman a representative paper sends to-day one of its best men by interesting accident set right next to me at the banquet to report the spirit of the occasion Thou must be a fool and a churl for a long season, says Emerson, addressing the ideal poet.

Darwin once wrote, in the earlier years of his naughty labours, And though I shall get more kicks than half-pennies, I will, life-serving, attempt my work.

Life has served Walt Whitten, to whom it is as natural to live heroically as to live at all, to a harvest of his own generous sowing.

Criticism has entered upon the stage of kindliness.

One more step, the step of unconventional examination, and the deed is done.

Camden's demonstration has helped to clear the air.

After this, certain of the old protests must forever stand convicted.

Reporters, editors, writers, men of the law and of affairs, giving forth here an utterance of faith, have passed the word far onward.

the attitude of the press was liberal and affectionate from the first the unanimity of its good feeling was so marked that some confessed to disappointment contending that a feast without spice had lost an essential factor but however walt whitman as he declared may have felt smothered in the sugar and honey of attention to his best friends it is clear enough that this event multiplied a thousand times will be needed before the balance of justice and the world's treatment of him has been secured and now sacredly to be ventured among pulsing and imperative last utterances taking shape of an intense experience how can i send this little memorial trusted to my hands off on its career without a word of my own sharing the privilege of the feast for though silent before the common temptations to speech at this moment in this circle body and spirit prevailed upon and absorbed i have stood and watched counting confidently in this victory my own victory and america's as well and recalling with grateful thought my gracious opportunities through which personally to know the man on whom so great a charge has been laid standing by walt whitman's side through all the battle of the past year braving his dangers sharing his defeats and rescues glorying in the love that allied me in ever more willing service watching the coming and going of friends sensitive to the fine growth of popular reverence who could have known better than i knew looking into his face that memorable night how potent the chosen instruments of his love his more than armoured courage and justice had proved in the end i dare not withdraw from the group nor stay and say nothing but staying and giving voice let me vain my thought though it were brought into a sentence with a flow of heart's blood Let us all, I should say, cherish the fact that this was a non-literary incident, as Walt Whitman is a non-literary man, and his books are non-literary books, that as Walt Whitman's future is in the hands, not of the anti-literary, but of a more than literary America, so it rang well in the tone of all this day said and done, that it struck out of our largest and most varied life.

It has seemed to me that this is what Walt Whitman himself must have desired.

Faith such as his guarantees universal means and universal ends.

You want another boring cheeseburger? You can get one anywhere.

They're all exactly the same.

But if you want meat and cheese done right, there's only one place to go.

Arby's, we have the meat.

Arby's all-new cheesesteak is made with 100% Angus steak slathered in melty Cooper cheese and piled onto a toasty sesame seed roll.

It's a sandwich you've been waiting for.

Bye-bye, cheeseburgers.

Hello, Arby's cheesesteak.

Arby's,

we have the meat.

Hurry to Wayfair.com or download the app now.

Evening.

Buyer's remorse.

Buy a new car? I'll be moving in.

Let's get started.

Sorry, I think there's been a mistake.

I bought it from Carvana.

You what?

Yeah, great price.

I even have seven days to love it or return it.

So there's no...

No, no buyer's remorse.

More like buyer's rejoice.

Guess I'll let myself

out.

Congratulations.

I mean it.

Buyers rejoice.

Buy your car today on Carvana.

Limitations and exclusions may apply.

See our seven-day return policy at Carvana.com.

He realized early that the world misunderstood, only that it might eventually understand.

He has known well enough that the man who has the truth has no enemies, that whatever traduction appears self-appoints its doom.

he has been serene in physical trials and just as serene in spiritual battle he knows that if he is a son he must have a son's patience that if he is not impatience will neither hasten nor defer obscuration he has steadfastly turned his back on every effort of friend or critic to bring him to endorse half-universes he has rung the alarm for behoof of humanism in literature the only real conservator he has shown that america can persevere in but one course and that course is the course of the stars and tides redolent of entire health and of untrammeled manhood he has protested against obscene delicacy and has given to the word sacredness a large meaning impossible to even the best of past scriptures oh what a current of deep meanings seizes the first thought of enumeration i dare not proceed but to stand near as i have stood near to know in his deeds and on his lips a never swerving confirmative testimony to realize the harmony of his past and his present to catch and stay out of the hurrying life of our time the eloquent records of a consecrated day not fleeting in ephemeral flatteries but throbbing in capacious evidences drawn from the very heart of revelation and devotion is to stand in the presence of that supreme that last that consoling circumstance of worlds which the story of every discoverer and his final glad audience unfolds.

H. L. T. Camden, New Jersey.

July 4th, 1889.

End of Section 2.

Section

3 of Camden's Compliments to Walt Whitman This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

Addresses

Invocation J. Leonard Corning Thanks to the Father of all for the light and inspiration of genius and virtue.

Thanks for great and mighty souls, the gifts of heaven to all the ages of time.

All praise to the Father for guiding words of truth and the sweet bonds of friendship and affection.

Thanks for this hour of gratulation, calling its greetings from home and distant lands.

Let the Father's benediction be upon our honored and beloved guest and upon all our hearts and households.

Amen.

Samuel H.

Gray, Camden.

Welcome.

Gentlemen, I have been selected by the Committee of the Citizens of Camden, who have had the matter in charge, to act as President upon this occasion, and upon me, as President, has devolved the agreeable duty of expressing in your behalf, toward the guest of the evening, whom we are here to entertain, and who by his presence bestows upon us as high an honor as we could ever receive, a cordial welcome.

We, as citizens of Camden, the workman from his shop, the merchant from his counting room, the lawyer from his office, even the preacher from his pulpit, nay, more, the judge from his court, all sorts and conditions of men, come here together as fellow citizens of this town this evening to welcome the most distinguished citizen not only of this town, but of this state.

distinguished not as a soldier, not as a merchant, not as an accumulator of wealth, not as an orator whose silver tongue a senate sways, not as a preacher who admonishes when we do wrong and sets us an example to do right, but as a man among men whose heart beats in unison with the great heart of humanity.

generous brave disinterested honest sincere all manly qualities are here impersonated in our guest patriotic in his younger manhood he made sacrifices for his country from the effects of which he yet suffers honest he has lived to a green old age poor in purse but rich in every quality and in every endowment which makes manhood excellent as a poet his rugged verse rises above the dead level of ordinary literature as a majestic mountain rises above a plain this man with these qualities social personal intellectual we are here this evening to greet He is here by his presence to bestow upon us an honor.

It gives me pleasure, gentlemen, speaking for you and in your behalf, to extend to our townsmen a cordial welcome which words better than mine could frame or phrase.

I greet him as the honored guest of his fellow citizens on this, his 70th birthday.

Walt Whitman responded briefly.

See page 5.

Thomas B. Harned, Camden.

Our Fellow Citizen.

In the year 1873,

Walt Whitman came to the city of Camden old, poor, and paralyzed.

He had no thought then that his life would be continued to its present stage.

His best years had been devoted to the sacred duty of nursing the sick and wounded soldiers in the army hospitals at Washington.

No tongue can tell the extent of that ministry.

With untiring devotion, vigilance, and fidelity, without fee or reward, he served his country in the hour of her greatest need.

The history of the Secession War presents no instance of nobler fulfilment

of

duty or sublimer

sacrifice.

But the

stalwart and majestic physique had to succumb to the terrible strain.

The man whom we here honour came among us to spend his last days with those who were near and dear to him.

His physical and spiritual condition at this time is best pictured in his own language.

My terminus near, the clouds already closing in upon me, the voyage balked, the course disputed, lost, I yield my ships to Thee.

My hands, my limbs grow nerveless, my brain feels racked, bewildered.

Let the old timbers part, I will not part.

I will cling fast to Thee, O God,

though the waves buffet me.

Thee, Thee, at least I know.

but the old timbers did not part the old ship had been built too strongly rest and the ministrations of loving friends prolonged his life and for more than fifteen years he has been our most distinguished citizen It is not my purpose to speak on this occasion of Walt Whitman's books or of his place in literature.

On that field he has baffled all classification.

While every epithet of rancor and opprobrium has been heaped upon his published writings, no man ever had truer friends.

The controversy which he has unconsciously provoked in the literary world is probably without a parallel.

Only now are we beginning to realize the importance of his life-work and the grandeur of the man.

the person walt whitman is greater than his book or any book he is made of that heroic stuff which creates such books he himself is the great epic of the senses the passions the attributes of the body and soul dear as he is to america and her democracy he yet belongs to the whole world he declares the perfection of the earth its fruitful soil its navigable seas its majestic mountains its forests all created things His love for the aggregate race is intense and boundless.

His sense of the universal is sublime.

He is the greatest living optimist.

He is the incarnation of naturalism.

He knows neither convention nor hypocrisy.

His cheerfulness is like a perpetual ray of sunshine.

His kind and generous heart beats responsive to life wherever found.

this is the kind of man we have had among us for many years how we like to speak of his gentleness his charity his wisdom his simplicity of his majestic figure cast in an antique mould his ruddy countenance his inspiring voice his strong and classic face We have seen him on our streets, or frequenting the ferry-boats, or driving over the neighbouring roads.

His companions have been from every walk of life, more especially from among the poor in the plain.

He has taken a personal interest in the welfare of mechanics, deck-hands, car-drivers.

No class has escaped his attention, his affection.

Ruffs, the criminal, the neglected, the forgotten, have been equally included.

in nothing does he show his simplicity as in his love for children they all know him there is that about him which draws and holds them and yet he is visited by persons of prominence from all parts of the world This city today is known to thousands of persons in distant lands merely because it is the home of Walt Whitman.

Emerson says that the knowledge that in the city is a man who invented the railroad raises the credit of all the citizens.

It has so proved with us.

Our citizenship is raised because in our city lives the author of Leaves of Grass.

I deem it a great privilege to pay Walt Whitman the tribute of my respect.

It has been my good fortune to be counted among his personal friends, and I desire to emphasize with great clearness my conviction that every moment of his life tallies with the teachings proclaimed throughout his books.

He is eminently consistent.

he does not bend the knee to wealth or power to him the ragged urchin is as dear as the learned scholar we who know him best know that he assumes nothing in him nature has ample play he has taken the rough with the smooth and in his sorest trials has not been heard to utter a complaint i do not believe that there ever lived a man less restricted by his environment He cares neither for praise nor censure, ever journeying the even tenor of his way.

Let the day bring forth health or sickness, pleasure or pain, gain or loss.

With a peace that passes all understanding, he says, it is all right anyhow.

They who have listened to the magic of his magnetic voice and have shared his simple prophetic conversation, which is a university in itself, know how careful he is not to speak ill of anyone.

He never indulges in carping criticism.

His wit is gentle and bright, and never carries a heart-stain on its blade.

Frugal in his habits, he has always expended upon himself the smallest amount possible in order that he might aid others whom he deemed more needy.

His charity is divine.

But I cannot enter into any detailed analysis of Walt Whitman's character.

It is a familiar story to many

here.

For the last year we have heard and known how his life has hung in the balance.

Little did we suppose that he could withstand his latest sickness and be with us to-day.

How can I hope to utter what so fills our hearts as we come together here? We all say we have known him.

Have any of us known him? Does not such a life baffle our understanding? We have assembled on this spot today to honor him, to look upon his radiant, serene face, and to thank him for the lesson he has taught us and will continue to teach to coming races.

His life work is finished.

He awaits the end with complacency.

The consecration is complete.

We crown him poet, prophet, philosopher, the incarnation of modern humanity.

Camden will be best known and honored because it has known and honored Walt Whitman.

Succeeding generations will do him reverence, and the little frame house on Mickle Street will be a shrine toward which pilgrims will travel in their adoration of him as one of the world's immortals.

Genius, says Macaulay, is like the peak of Tenerife, which catches the beams of the morning sun an hour before

the rest of the world.

From that high eminence, as the end draws near, with a faith in immortality which is abiding and sublime, Walt Whitman beholds the vision of the future.

As if some miracle, some hand divine, unsealed my eyes.

Shadowy vast shapes smile through the air and sky, And on the distant waves sail countless ships, And anthems in new tongues I hear saluting me.

Herbert Harlockenden Gilchrist Hampstead, London, England Friends Across the Seas

Evening, buyer's remorse.

Buy a new car? I'll be moving in.

Let's get started.

Sorry, I think there's been a mistake.

I bought it from Carvana.

You

what? Yeah, great price.

I even have seven days to love it or return it.

So there's no...

No, no buyer's remorse.

More like buyer's rejoice.

Guess I'll let myself

out.

Congratulations.

I mean it.

Buyers rejoice.

Buy your car today on Carvana.

Limitations and exclusions may apply.

See our seven-day return policy at Carvana.com.

This is the story of the one.

As a maintenance engineer at a beverage manufacturing plant, he starts his day knowing every line is ready to run because Grainger delivers the industrial-grade products he needs to keep mixers, conveyors, and packaging equipment moving.

With Grainger's vast selection of bearings, belts, and motors, he keeps operations running smoothly, so nothing grinds to a halt.

Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click Grainger.com, or just stop by.

Grainger, for the ones who get it done.

Hi, I'm Katie Duke, and I've been a nurse for over 20 years.

Listen, I used to think that I was my most stylish in my 20s, but honestly, style and confidence only get better with age.

And that is why I love figs.

These scrubs are beautiful, comfortable, and they are built to last.

They're not those boxy, scratchy uniforms that we all started out in.

No, no, no.

These fit perfectly.

They feel amazing.

And the quality is just wow.

My favorite color? Burgundy.

It's chic, it's timeless, and it's even the same color as my apartment.

Because I'm kind of obsessed with it.

And I love adding custom embroidery to make my scrubs as personal as my style.

And since I work in telehealth, my embroidered figs even double as my ID badge.

It's never too late to reinvent yourself or your scrubs.

Get 15% off your first order at wearfigs.com with the code FIGSRX.

That's wearfigs.com, code FIGSRX for

15% off your first order.

How can my arms lift the pennant that floats proudly over the British Empire and unfurl its heavy folds in the wild summer evening of this inimitable occasion? How can the inarticulate voice of an artist salute the poet, strike the note, utter the message of respect and love from the toiling masses, the philosophers and scholars of democratic and intellectual Great Britain.

I ask you gently to hear, kindly to judge my speech.

Piece out my imperfections with your thoughts.

Think when I talk of England's men and women that you see them, for it is your thoughts that now must deck our poet.

It is true that I was born and have lived amongst the courageous handful of undaunted men and women who first greeted Walt Whitman and the publication of Leaves of Grass with a ringing cheer of welcome, a handful that has grown into hundreds of thousands and which is still spreading under the influence of that heavenly force.

The great master's voice has moved to distant continents.

O waters, I have fingered every shore with you.

That melody of life with its cunning tones has swept across the Atlantic, entered the thatched cottage and ivy-grown, moat-encircled Grange, invaded the universities, and within the girdle of those antique and moss-grown walls of Oxford and Cambridge, the Don and undergraduate have been stirred by the poems which glow with life.

The immortal reverberations floated east, south, west, and north, till the waves struck the thoughts of workmen, toilers at Sheffield, Newcastle, and Glasgow, including all of Scotland and Ireland.

Our guest can picture in his mind's eye the sagacious, good-natured glance which shines upon him today from beneath soot-begrimed brows and smirched faces of brawny colliers, powerful smiths, and mechanics.

walt whitman whose pieces have strengthened and sweetened the lives of the people has moved the aristocrat whose soul has expanded under the influence of the poet's great heart thought cannot be walled out by caste or the mask of materials and the sweeping voice of the bard has taken captive ear and heart some of the true men and women throughout the length and breadth of the united kingdom Noble women of Great Britain have shown by pen and speech to our warped and blunted masculine natures the spiritual meaning and religious fervor which shine through and illuminate the leaves in leaves of grass.

The prosperity of this occasion forces upon my memory an expression that our guest made to myself during darker, less happy times.

he said no magic incident of hare's breath escape in the fairy queen surpassed the resuscitation of myself from the perils of death by brave champions in eighteen seventy six that movement was the turning-point of my fortunes they had been gloomy ebbing and waning for nearly ten years and the storing and filling of my pockets to supply the personal needs and necessities of life which had got to be at that time in the slough and very sink of perdition this magic lift as in old legends of warm support and cheering responses from the big fellows from alfred tennyson lord houghton william michael rossetti algernon charles swinborne Robert Buchanan and Edward Carpenter, was accomplished by my British friends, who sprang into the breach and plucked me from the perils and jaws of death.

As Harry Hotspur would dive into the bottom of the deep, where fathom-lined could never touch the ground, and pluck up drowned honour by the locks.

consideration like an angel came in time and this philosopher who has given the world so much has king-like shown us how a man should take the world's stray offerings The proud poet triumphantly emerges from beneath the base black cloud of contumely and neglect and insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes, passes through this ugly rack and shows us by his pride of port his sale of greatness.

Your Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe have given you emphatic warnings against entangling alliances with any European people or any foreign people.

But there is a power and faculty in the race.

Adhesiveness is the phrenological term.

Magnetic friendship and goodwill of the common humanity of all nations that they would certainly have encouraged.

and which all good publicists would ever encourage.

Of this faculty, Leaves of Grass is the book, and Walt Whitman is the poet, beyond any hitherto known.

He scatters it, not only through all the states of this immense and veriform union, but all the lands and races of the globe, America, to him, stands really greater in that than in all its wealth, products, and even intellect.

By him, poetry is to be its main exemplar and teacher.

Thus the succor which rescued your great one was not the work of individuals, no, nor should it be viewed as the friendly privilege and monopoly of the mother country.

The fair action was rather a compliment to the pride of America from the British Isles as typifying the brotherliness of men and in cementing a larger guild of literature than the world has hitherto known.

Thirteen summers ago I first met our guest.

Today I find myself standing within the sunshine of the poet's eye.

In behalf of and for the faithful sons and daughters of the British Isles and the friends across the seas, I wish Walt Whitman, who sits honored and surrounded with troops of friends, many happy returns of the day.

FRANCIS HOWARD WILLIAMS GERMANTOWN PAST AND PRESENT The history of all truly great movements is a

chronicle of long injustice and of final triumph.

When Wordsworth raised the standard of revolt against the formalism of the school of Pope, he brought down upon his head the vials of English literary wrath, and not until he was an old man did he conquer a recognition and win the just reward of his heroism.

For years and years, Walt Whitman has been the standard-bearer in a movement no less important than that against the English classical school.

For years and years, he has borne calumny and misrepresentation from a public which utterly failed to understand him, and from certain exclusive coteries which willfully failed to do so.

People vilified him, and when he could not answer, they searched the leaves of grass to find the ground of an accusation.

They said that he was a sensualist, taking no thought of the spiritual essence and spiritual needs of humanity, but they found written in leaves of grass, I am the poet of the body, and I am the poet of the soul.

and throughout the book the soul is celebrated equally with the body, the mind equally with the heart, the spirit equally with the sense.

They found it an essential part of the poet's work to so celebrate them, just as he celebrates the female equally with the male in depicting the perfect personality of man.

when these people accused him of infidelity although they read in his book that a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels again they accused him of being a gross materialist finding doubtless much beauty in external nature but failing to recognise the power behind it all he was a pantheist with vision blinded to the higher spiritual insight but there in the sixth section of the song of myself stood that surpassingly lovely passage a child said what is the grass fetching it to me with full hands How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, a scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped, bearing the owner's name some way in the corners, that we may see and remark and say, "'Whose?' literature contains no finer recognition of an eternal power not ourselves which makes for righteousness and let me say incidentally no finer example of a delicate sense of verbal melody and so it has gone on.

There has been a deal of howling and conventional shuddering, a deal of holding up the hands in shocked amazement, the dear people all the while forgetful of the fact that in reading Whitman they were looking into a clear mirror which showed them the reflection of themselves, and which didn't make them look prettier simply because the mirror wasn't cracked.

And amid all the vituperation the poet has calmly said, I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood.

I see that the elementary laws never apologize.

to-day there are signs that the vindication has come and in the right way from without it has come from those compelled hereto by the working out of inexorable truth speaking for philadelphia i am sure that whatever there is of a literary movement there tends more and more towards the acceptance of at least the fundamental principles and basic meanings of the leaves of grass towards a recognition of the fact that all true things are beautiful to him who sees aright you of camden can claim walt whitman for your own but you must let us of the bigger town across the river have a share in him because we are now beginning to deserve it such a gathering as this is a pleasant sign of the times We feel that in striving to honor Walt Whitman, we are doubly honoring ourselves, and we know with all the certainty of a fixed conviction that his fame will rest securely on that high plane achieved by his utterance of a great message.

John Herbert Clifford, Germantown Prophet and Bard Isaac Taylor, now 30 years dead, wrote, Human nature utters itself with passion, but yet it is not a false utterance.

It is a true, though an impetuous, vaticination.

For vaticination we say prophecy, but no more to tell the God's will, nor the particular future.

The word points straight through all localisms to universal meanings.

and prophet here and now means to us a voice of human nature, passionate and true, and of the universal soul, not echo of tribal God for peculiar people.

Oracles are dumb.

Hebrew line, grand in its day, spokesmen all of positive faiths grow faint when speaks the universe by the mouth of its holy prophet.

Great lispings there were, articulations worthy of the man-child's dream of his coming stature.

All must be gathered up into the vaster music of a race larger grown.

We claim no single or preeminent voice.

All the world is witness.

But the greatening spiritual content brings its able utterers.

Sit we not here with one of these? In the volume of the book it is written, and in the volume of the faithful years, leaves of grass, immortal with thought, leaves of life as deathless in the days, specimen days, of the living and the loving soul.

Green be his November boughs.

No sands at seventy can sterilize this soil.

No carping unfastens the collect of comrades and brotherhood bond of man.

Not much, yet in familiar questions Whitman is quoted, familiar in the plagiary's euphemism.

It's summer clearance time at Scandinavian Designs Furniture.

Save up to 70% on clearance furniture and accessories.

Plus, enjoy special savings on new arrivals, outdoor favorites and more.

Whether you're updating a single room or refreshing your entire home, discover your next great find.

From bold statement pieces to decor that completes the look.

But hurry, these deals are only available for a limited time.

Stop by a local showroom or shop online at ScandinavianDesigns.com. Scandinavian Designs.

We make it simple.

You make it home.

Hi, I'm Katie Duke, and I've been a nurse for over 20 years.

Listen, I used to think that I was my most stylish in my 20s, but honestly, style and confidence only get better with age.

And that is why I love figs.

These scrubs are beautiful, comfortable, and they are built to last.

They're not those boxy, scratchy uniforms that we all started out in.

No, no, no.

These fit perfectly.

They feel amazing.

And the quality is just wow.

My favorite color? Burgundy.

It's chic, it's timeless, and it's even the same color as my apartment.

Because I'm kind of obsessed with it.

And I love adding custom embroidery to make my scrubs as personal as my style.

And since I work in telehealth, my embroidered figs even double as my ID badge.

It's never too late to reinvent yourself or your scrubs.

Get 15% off your first order at wearfigs.com with the code FIGSRX.

That's wearfigs.com, code FIGSRX for 15% off your first order.

It's summer clearance time at Scandinavian Designs Furniture.

Save up to 70% on clearance furniture and accessories, plus enjoy special savings on new arrivals, outdoor favorites, and more.

Whether you're updating a single room or refreshing your entire home, discover your next great find, from bold statement pieces to decor that completes the look.

But hurry, these deals are only available for a limited time.

Stop by a local showroom or shop online at ScandinavianDesigns.com. Scandinavian Designs.

We make it simple.

You make it home.

unconscious absorption when gatherers shall come with bees instinct for flowers anthologies will bloom with his name no seven cities war to claim his birth though seven hundred deny the bread of just fame happy that one city of title undisputed for not much longer can his credentials be questioned

Do you hear some still asking,

is he a poet? Bring Charles Lamb's candle and look at their heads.

Wide consent may be withheld until his crown is on, and some recoil is claimed from early recognitions.

the son of emerson in a little book about his father plants a footnote of disparagement based upon alleged confessions of the concord sage who found leaves of grass the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that america has yet contributed and greeted its author at the beginning of a great career which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere for such a start this it would seem emerson inclined to take back disappointed of his expectations but what he had written he had written retraction were self-recoil no more For Emerson, no word but reverence here.

Yet, alas, for profit's faithfulness to profit, Whitman too coarse for the expounder of Montaigne and Shakespeare and Goethe.

But the fatal sentence is that this catalogue style of poetry is easy and leads nowhere.

But are there not other catalogues in poetry? In the Iliad, some of the various outfits for limited operations, though they do lead somewhere.

Is it the rub that Whitman's catalogues lead everywhere? Perhaps it is at the catalogues that old Homer nods.

If so, shall not other Homers nod, and their readers as well? but does our poet look a nodder gaze not at him here but in that morse head of him see if there be not rather the countenance of an elder god with eyes that look straight on and never wink transcender of transcendentalists german english new england transcendentalism deportations of a spirit to high exile of the chosen, cult, sending back too radiant for common eyes celestial visions.

Archbishop Whatley religiously placed Emerson in the magic lanthorn school of writers, their object, as they see themselves, must confess, merely to elevate and surprise.

blind enough, yet dimly hinting want of a completing practical power in ideal philosophy to seize and hold man's actual life.

In Emerson that power appears, spite of infinite refinements, yet needing mediators for the multitude.

But Whitman should be his own mediator, even to runners who read.

Those very catalogues are hooks that fasten him to life.

Although transcendental, he is not less immediate to men.

Thoughts to lift them, sympathy to comfort, brother love to cheer, he gives all these.

Samuel Johnson of Salem, whose transcendentalism held all science and practical ethics, drew Theodore Parker, transcendentalism's great warrior saint, with the wise head of Socrates and the warm, loving heart of Robert Burns.

Lend this likeness to our poet.

Is it not as fit? His philosophy comes down from the heaven of select souls to grasp the hand of man the democrat.

His dreams refresh men from their toil.

They turn drudgery to song.

Serenest, sanest optimism that reckons with ugliness and ills.

what believing of men already here, what heralding of better men to come.

Complete American, pictured in the book, prefigured as in Lincoln's character, chanted in his requiem, with grandeur and tenderness sung, and in the American soldier, fortunate to die and be in proud remembrance here, and not alone the finished american he sings the perfect man knows him the adding up of works is not here some first shaping of the epic of humanity hitherto writ but in fragments of time and place broken tales of love and woe one day to be written full written as lived by man Dante and Danton, the sayer and the doer, heaven and hell and earth, the past, the present, the future, revolution, evolution, all shall be in its mighty sweep.

The poet who takes idealism down into the doing of that greatest reverence of Goethe's, of Jesus, too, and Paul's, and Fourier's, and John Brown's, reverence for the lives below is needed to carry man out to the universe and up to God.

For he does not fear to say God.

Voltaire said that if God did not exist, man must invent him.

And some who say not God do say almost as good, say what is better than any invented God.

Our poet teaches what Thoreau prayed.

May I love and revere myself above all the gods that man has ever invented.

Old concern to take care of God goes with modern prompting to care for man.

Take care of man and God will take care of himself and of men's substitutes for him.

Whitman's God is cosmic.

The daring poet who sings himself a cosmos has not far to seek his God, nor lacks for equal mind to celebrate the gifts of life and death.

Fulfiller for his part is he of the poetic past and continuator to the future of Olympian bards who sung divine ideas below which always find us young and always keep us so.

I heard that one of Whitman's contemporaries, himself a grave writer and sometimes morose, found our poet too serious.

I knew a young fellow of wild genius who one day waylaid Carlyle in his walk and soon had him dismissing philosophers each to his own place.

Hegel he doomed for heaviness.

But my youth replied, you could hardly expect Atlas with the world on his shoulders to dance a jig.

And our Atlas poet.

with cosmos in his brain must needs leave sportive moods to humorists yet are not all humours there veining his world with infinite variety after reading hegel whitman wrote Roaming in thought over the universe, I saw the little that is good steadily hastening towards immortality, and the vast all that is called evil I saw hastening to merge itself and become lost and dead.

Yes, serious that, and high.

So is he in all above suspicion of obscene or impure, and they who tax him with such offence bring their defilement with them.

He has no doubt the faults of his own qualities.

He cannot be smirched with theirs.

So serious and great, I deem it no extravagance to think our prophet barred, that Carlyle's praise of the book of Job might well be given to his.

One of the grandest things ever written with a pen.

Such a noble universality, different from noble patriotism or sectarianism, reigns in it.

It's summer clearance time at Scandinavian Designs Furniture.

Save up to 70% on clearance furniture and accessories.

Plus, enjoy special savings on new arrivals, outdoor favorites, and more.

Whether you're updating a single room or refreshing your entire home, discover your next great find from bold statement pieces to decor that completes the look.

But hurry, these deals are only available for a limited time.

Stop by a local showroom or shop online at ScandinavianDesigns.com. Scandinavian Designs.

We make it simple.

You make it home.

all men's book, grand in its sincerity, its simplicity, in its epic melody and repose of reconcilement.

True insight and vision for all things, material things no less than spiritual.

Sublime sorrow, sublime reconciliation, oldest choral melody soft as the heart of mankind so soft and great as the summer midnight as the world with its seas and stars no singer of times and clans of courts and games and loves and wars of places he is prophet of universal life and bard of the cosmic epos He gives new words to the dictionary, new darings and achievement to literature.

Single-handed hero in the peaceful war, how calmly he abides the issue, repelling blows with benedictions and treacheries with childlike trust.

Homer, perhaps, is many, and Shakespeare, who knows? but here indubitably is one.

And like wisdom of old remaining in himself, he maketh all things new.

What frets and jars in the world of letters are soothed to calm in the all-accepting bosom of his cheerful faith.

No come-outer, jealous of other come-outers, lest they be frightfuler than himself.

Not one of Hawthorne's come-outers, eating no solid food, but living on the scent of other people's cookery.

Not come-outer at all, because never gone in.

What are little systems to the seer of all? We love Emerson, an iconoclast, without a hammer.

We love also the right iconoclast with his hammer, the very hammer of Thor, for idle mountains which its smiting alone can bring down.

Every prophet and reformer is his own species, like the schoolman's angel.

but was ever hammer as heavy, with blows as strong as Whitman's, so noiselessly swung like God's greatest weights upon their smallest wires.

Luther, Cromwell, Parker, Garrison, and sturdy smiters still bringing down the strongholds of superstition and wrong.

How their mighty strokes resound! but see this valiant striker break the prison walls of custom and error, all silently opening man's soul to the day.

Some five and forty years ago, Elizabeth Barrett wrote to a New England friend, We have one Shakespeare between us, your land and ours, and one Milton, and now we are waiting for you to give us another.

But why another Shakespeare or Milton? One of a kind will do.

We indeed give you another poet, but he is his own kind.

Sui generis, not for one land, nor two, but for all the lands and times.

Lesser bards have waited their centuries to be known, and he can wait, for the centuries can wait for him.

Cast forth thy word into the ever-living, ever-working universe.

It is a seed grain that cannot die.

Unnoticed today, it will be found flourishing after a thousand years.

This, of another seer, is likewise our poet's faith.

Well has he kept it, and nobly leaves it to mankind.

all all for immortality love like the light silently wrapping all nature's amelioration blessing all the blossoms fruits of ages orchards divine and certain forms objects growths humanities to spiritual images ripening Give me, O God, to sing that thought.

Give me, give him or her I love this quenchless faith.

In thy ensemble, whatever else withheld, withhold not from us.

Belief in the plan of thee enclosed in time and space.

Health, peace, salvation, universal.

End of section three.

Section four of Camden's compliments to Walt Whitman by various.

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

Addresses part two.

Charles G. Garrison, Camden.

Law, natural and conventional.

Into the structure of the temple of immortality, two widely different forms of genius enter.

There is the genius of the architect, which embodies material elements so as to express in lasting form a single individuality, a kind of genius which lacks growth and is without vitality.

then there are the material elements themselves materials brought to the temple but not made of man having their origin in natural laws growing stratum upon stratum like all growths between these two types there is an essential distinction the genius of the architect is fixed cribbed and confined while the material elements of which the building is framed are capable of other and indefinite uses This latter is the type of mind of which all world books are formed.

Among the classic dramatists, Euripides and Sophocles furnished such types.

Homer and Virgil among the epic poets.

In philosophy, Plato.

In poetry, the Hebrew scriptures.

In later times, Goethe.

it is of this type of mind that carlyle speaks when he exclaims of shakespeare o this myriad-minded man but mr president it is rare within the lifetime of the furnisher of such material to the world that those about discover in him this immortal quality To our guest this rare distinction must be accorded, that his contemporaries see in him the myriad-mindedness of genius.

If, however, there be one thing which would be denied to him, even by those who speak sincerely and lovingly, it would be the possession of any correct notion of law.

If I am mistaken not, he has been spoken of as Walt the Lawless.

law includes such diverse ideas we have the idea of a legislative enactment that is one notion of law then there are social laws as we call them which undertake to regulate all our private affairs for us even our morals and then there is another idea of law which lies deeper than these viz that immutable condition of things to which whether we recognize it or not whether we will or not all things that are true must conform and of which strange to say the least possible account is taken in dealing with the other two Thus it happens that there has always been a conflict between the two concrete notions of law and this one great and true idea.

The history of every philosophy, of every race, every religion, is nothing more, or but little more, than the history of the warfare between these two notions of the law, the outward spirit of humanity always deciding for the true ideal.

Hastily suggested is the attitude of Socrates in such a warfare, who still lives as the vital instinct of the philosophy of Plato.

Of Gautama, today the great Buddha of three hundred millions of his fellow men, of a certain young rabbi on the shores of Galilee, whose spirit has entered into all modern civilization.

All of these are exemplars of this warfare in which the true and fundamental law opposed, for the time being, the other lesser laws.

What is chiefly to be noticed in all great spiritual movements is that while they fought against laws, they fought toward law.

Humbly, then, should we reproach any great mind with the idea of its lawlessness.

It is the special province of genius to see where the true law lies.

Rightly understood, the spirit of genius is never lawless.

It's summer clearance time at Scandinavian Designs Furniture.

Save up to 70% on clearance furniture and accessories.

Plus, enjoy special savings on new arrivals, outdoor favorites, and more.

Whether you're updating a single room or refreshing your entire home, discover your next great find, from bold statement pieces to decor that completes the look.

But hurry, these deals are only available for a limited time.

Stop by a local showroom or shop online at ScandinavianDesigns.com. Scandinavian Designs.

We make it simple.

You make it home.

Rather would it befit us, in view of the transcendent vision of genius, to question humbly our own faculties, to seek for what may aid our sight toward the distant worlds he sees, before we deem in our hearts that he is gazing into vacant air.

But our poet has nothing to say about these warfares of ideas in the great philosophic or religious systems.

His words are not addressed to nations, not to senates, not to the municipal divisions into which people divide themselves.

He speaks but to man, of whom philosophers have always delighted to speak as a little world, a microcosm, they call him.

And what is the word that Whitman brings to him? What does he say to him when man knows not by which of the arbitrary laws about him he ought to guide his life? i refer not to legislative or civil laws i mean those forces which are brought to bear on the life of man socially ethically books creeds the next-door neighbors tell him to do this or to do that or he shall be condemned In crises of his life, he finds these rules fall away from him, or he outgrows them.

He knows not how to test them.

When weighed in the balance, they are found wanting in spiritual truth.

Then comes the spirit which pervades every line of Whitman, and bids each man cherish himself as the temple of truth, and he will know where to find it.

whitman teaches above all else that man has within himself that element of the divine which is capable of placing him in unison with nature and beauty and at one with his fellow men in the language of st paul he bids men remember that they are sons of god in the sense that they have within them the godlike spirit which alone is capable of indefinite growth and expansion Nothing from without, everything from within, is his motto.

All the criticism that can be heaped upon Whitman for deifying the temple of the body is explained by the idea that it is to him the tabernacle of that spirit of truth which he would have all whom he loves so dearly look upon as a divine heritage, that they may make the spirit and the temple which encloses it worthy each of the other.

The teaching of Whitman is embodied in the words of that other myriad-minded poet who says, To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day.

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

E.

A. Armstrong, Camden State of New Jersey it seems to me that new jersey is the state in which walt whitman ought to live how many are the jibes and the sneers and the slurs that new jersey has received by would-be wits and philosophers serenely she has taken them all conscious that one day justification would come and that appreciation would follow that day has arrived Walt Whitman has never complained because he has been unjustly condemned.

Walt Whitman has never said an unkind word in answer to all the unfair and unjust and unrighteous criticisms that were hurled at him.

New Jersey, therefore, is proud of Walt Whitman, and although it was not his fortune to be born within her borders, we know that Walt Whitman is proud of New Jersey.

A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind.

And we who are native-born Jerseymen, we who love our soil and love our state and love all our surroundings, sir, have learned in the years in which you have lived with us to love you.

And we, your fellow citizens and your fellow state inhabitants, greet you here today and say to you, May the years that have passed bring you, in many years yet to come, rich fruits and rich returns.

I am glad to extend to Walt Whitman, on behalf of all the people of New Jersey, the warmest congratulations upon the completion of the 70th year of his life.

And I know that every loyal Jersey heart will join with me in wishing a continuance by many years of that life with its illustration and example of true manhood, true fellowship, true democracy, and its evidence of human love.

And all will join with me in a hearty amen when I say, may those years be long measured out to the people of the country.

richard watson gilder new york literature i have heard the murmured protests of my friend as praise has been added to praise but i don't know what we are going to do unless we praise walt whitman tonight There was a little hint communicated that possibly it might be agreeable to you and to our guest that I should say something about American literature.

But you will be happy to know that I have positively refused.

I do not think you are greatly interested in literature outside of Camden tonight, and I think that my best introduction would be to say I was born not far from Camden, and I am here to welcome Walt Whitman as myself a born Jerseyman.

He thought I was going to give you an encyclopedia of American literature, and he said to me that he did not want me to omit Cooper, Bryant, Emerson, and Whittier.

so they are not omitted in our thoughts to-night no great names in american literature are omitted and bright among them shines the name of walt whitman but gentlemen it is a satisfaction to be here also as a literary man as a very busy though humble worker in literary fields You have heard Mr. Whitman praised as a man, as a good man, as a patriot, and all that, but you know perfectly well that you would have heard very little praise of Mr. Whitman if he had not been a literary man.

He is a poet, thank God, and you people of Camden and Philadelphia are honoring yourselves most highly in giving this unusual tribute, this neighborhood tribute, to the living poet.

Our friend, Judge Garrison, has spoken tonight of two kinds of contributions to literature, the literature of substance and the literature of form.

I am a stickler for form in literature, and one thing that I admire in Walt Whitman is his magnificent form.

It is one of the most remarkable things in all literature and one of the most individual.

In its kind and at its best, it is unapproachable.

No one can imitate with success Whitman's peculiar style.

Those who have tried, men, women, and boys, have all failed.

No one can do it but Walt Whitman.

At the same time, the substance of Whitman's poetry pours freely into any language and carries its flood of meaning and of passion into whatever language it flows.

I remember well the first great impression I ever had of Whitman's poetry.

It was received in reading a review of it in a French magazine many years ago, not a great while after the war.

I had seen a great deal of our war as a boy, as the son of a soldier living in camp with the Army of the Potomac, and as a soldier myself for a short time.

I had seen people shot.

I had seen a good deal of the hospitals during the late war.

And as a reporter for a Jersey paper up here in Newark, I had traveled with the funeral of Abraham Lincoln.

The only time I ever saw Lincoln was his dead face in Independence Hall over across the river.

It was near midnight.

A policeman let me in after the crowd had passed through.

and I climbed up those steps through the window, and I came down suddenly upon that still, immortal face.

Then I walked alone up to the railroad station, which was in the northern end of the town.

As I walked, I heard the band coming up behind me, and the body arrived, and we were all awake throughout the night, and we saw the faces of myriads turned with tears upon the funeral train, faces of men, women, and children, all the way to newark where i got off and wrote my report yes i saw a great deal of the war but i have read nothing about the war that carries its volume of feeling its enthusiasm its pathos its picturesqueness as does the poetry of walt whitman as i say my first impression of that was received from a review written in another language Not long ago, another Frenchman took up Whitman's war poetry again, and poured it out for his readers, and I got hold of it again, and again I was shaken like a reed in the wind.

There is nothing like it.

There is no description of war in verse like it, and certainly not in our language.

I was asked to be impromptu tonight, but my impromptu has been a great deal spoiled by the previous impromptus.

i wanted to say something very fresh and impressive on the line of our friend here about walt whitman's appreciation of the duality of existence those who look through his poetry like dr johnson's old woman for the naughty words and who really know nothing about it think that he is a poet of only one phase of life but where outside of the bible is there a stronger sense of the spirit where is there a stronger passion for immortality a stronger vision of the individuality of the soul the quenchless human spirit it is because he covers both the flesh and the spirit that whitman reaches some of the loftiest minds of our day He is not yet penetrated to the masses, but he will in years to come through the finer intellects of the time.

They will interpret him because they feel most keenly his literary form.

They feel most keenly his subtleties, the beauties of his thought and of his language.

Gentlemen, in New York we are building an arch to commemorate our Washington centennial.

there is a great deal of public spirit in that town of ours and we are trying to concentrate it now upon a most beautiful and fitting memorial of the late centennial celebration one feature of the arch is that it is to be built not only by the rich but by the poor by the children with their pennies and by the millionaires with their thousands and in the corner-stone we are going to put the names of all those people we shall probably put there other records of the time we shall put there some description of the centennial perhaps the names of our president governor mayor and common council we will put there a very beautiful medal by st gaudens which our committee had the honour to send forth and some thousands of years from now when civilization moves onward northward perhaps around the pole some one will come here and under the ruins will find a record of the new york of these times Place Walt Whitman's poetry in the cornerstone of this nation.

Let some convulsion of nature overthrow these United States, then let that poetry be found.

And from the lines will rise up a picture of our times, such, I believe, as nowhere else can be found.

Julian Hawthorne, Scotch Plains, New Jersey Deputy of Nature The short shift in the matter of notice given me for this call is offset by the belief that this is one of those rare occasions on which the frank giving out of hearty feeling has as much a place as premeditated eloquence.

And the reason, as I need not tell you, is that Walt Whitman sits here as the deputy of nature, her ambassador, accredited and approved." i have always thought of walt whitman less as an individual man than as a gospel praise of him is praise of humanity and personal vanity is as alien from him as from mount washington or the mississippi His books show us that no one better than he has loved his fellow man, and yet we feel that the qualities in us which he finds most lovable are not the petty, personal ones, but those which belong to the race.

Take, for example, his friendship for the greatest man of our generation, Abraham Lincoln.

great as was his personal love for Lincoln, I question if his highest affection and deepest reverence were not paid rather to the voice and hand of a destiny mightier than Lincoln's, speaking and acting through him to national ends, and because he recognized in Lincoln the heart and brain of a people working and planning through him the union and freedom of their country.

It was for this and for no lesser reason that he was able to hail Lincoln as my captain.

And then again, to show the breadth of the man, take at the other end of the scale his lines to a common prostitute.

He entered into no question of untoward circumstances, nor into any gradations of sin, original, hereditary, or personal, but he saw her standing there as she has stood through history, the victim of man and his nemesis.

And as such he, as a man, accepted her.

He saw that our universal Mother Nature lavished upon her as upon the most immaculate of her sisters the warmth of the sun, the freshness of the rain, the perfume of the flowers, and the rustling of the leaves.

And he said to her, Not till the sun excludes you do I exclude you.

It was a great saying, and the world must sooner or later give heed to it.

And surely the man and poet whose sympathy can extend from the highest specimen of our times to the lowest, nameless outcast, is worthy of more than all the sympathy and honor that we contain.

Hamlin Garland, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts The Teacher it seems particularly fitting to me at this time that a personal acknowledgment should be made of the debt we owe to our great democratic poet in making this for myself i am perfectly sure that i am representative of a large and increasing group of men and women both here and abroad Walt Whitman has taught me many great and searching truths, but in the press there are two lifts of thought and feeling which rise so high they catch the eternal sunshine.

These are optimism and altruism, hope for the future and sympathy toward men.

If I am right in the belief that I am a representative recipient, then I am right in saying that if Whitman had done no more than teach these great emotions and live them in his life, which is better, he would be worthy of all the honor we can give him.

For Walt Whitman's optimism is not the blind optimism of ignorant youth, but the jubilant flight of the stern-eyed poet, vaulting like the eagle over darkness and storms.

he sees and has seen the failures abortions vices and diseases of our social life and yet his sublime optimism spreads wing over them all he has the passion of hope as his religion has no hell so his philosophy knows no despair no matter how greed and avarice may shout and thunder along their granite grooves no matter how thick the miasmic mist of bribery may rise from our political cesspools his tumultuous and optimistic song rises above it all on level jocund wing he caught long ago the deepest principle of evolution of progress which is that the infinite past portends and prefigures the infinite future that each age is the child of the past and the parent of the future that nothing happens that everything is caused and that no age could conceivably have been other than it was this enables him to sing What will be will be well, for what is is well.

Pleasantly and well-suited I walk.

Whither I walk I cannot define, but I know it is good.

The whole universe indicates that it is good.

The past and the present indicate that it is good.

And henceforth I will go celebrate everything I see or am, and sing and laugh and deny nothing.

this steadfast and superb faith in the universe the most exhaustive knowledge of evil has not shaken age suffering neglect misprison have not power to prevail over it this is one of the great lessons of our great poet seer the other great lesson which he has taught us is the passion of sympathy the great lesson which the ages have so slowly learned the passion which a militant age trod under foot but which in this new and peaceful era is to be the one consummate resplendent flower of a new and a more glorious chivalry walt whitman is an absolute democrat he knows no line of colour race or class There is no nature so dwarfed and darkened that he has not sung of its need, saying, This is a human soul and a brother.

Which of you are ready to condemn it? Impartial as the sun which shines, generous as the ocean, his sympathy embraces all.

This passion during the Civil War sent him amid the horrible hospital scenes to the heroic duties which struck him down in the middle prime of life.

Greater love hath no man than this.

He laid down his life for strangers.

He could not fight men, but he could fight disease and face death with calm eyes.

The value of his life and teaching is inconceivably great.

We have substantially passed the age of militarism, and we are engaged in an industrial war.

Strife and heartless cruelty still survive, but in other forms.

brotherhood and peace are still far-off blessed dreams and the need of great teachers of sympathy and hope is pressing indeed let us give thanks to the day that added one more teacher of hope and sympathy let us take courage of the fact that out of a day of dollars out of a din of selfish trade out of the surf-like roar of material progress such a singer with such a message was born and that he has gained at last the respectful ear of his age and time i have purposely left out of my tribute any reference to walt whitman's poetry as poetry because i knew that others would efficiently touch upon that phase of his work i am satisfied moreover that the american people must first know him as a man must know the great patient heart and life of walt whitman before they will understand his stupendous books It is our duty, we who know him, to tell his countrymen of his simplicity, grandeur, and blamelessness of life, thus hastening the time when he will be known for what he is, the strongest, most electric, most original of modern poets.

In conclusion, let me say how much pleasure it gives me to take part in such a gathering as this.

Praise too often builds monuments when it should build houses, raises tombs when it should have warmed hearts.

Too often we neglect the living man and honor the dead poet.

Praise for the hearing ear, I say, flowers of love for the throbbing sense of the living man.

I present my wreath of praise, drop my bit of laurel into the still warm, firm hand of the singer, Walt Whitman, victorious at seventy.

henry l bonsall camden a child of adam revised and improved after a supreme court justice has captured our garrison and invoked the art of the century's gilder in the weaving of a garland of hawthorn blossoms to bedeck the brow of our chief When the bench, the bar, the publicist, poet and preacher have each and all so unreservedly given testimony to the faith within them.

When the grand jurors have made their presentiment.

what remains for one of the pettic panel, save to give in a plain and unvarnished manner some of the simpler impressions drawn, not from the consensus of opinion in this symposium, but gleaned in contact with the person, and in something more than a cursory contemplation of his work.

Walt Whitman has ever been to me a large and luminous presence, a pervading and persuasive personality.

His work will stand for what it is worth, and that it has grown to be thought of incontestable and to a largely increasing number of inestimable value, this wonderfully representative gathering of many of the masters in art, literature, science, and philosophy abundantly attests.

Aside from his great work, however, a great man attracts and rivets attention.

Great in his simplicity, his naturalness transcends and triumphs over the pomp and circumstance surrounding so many other illustrious names.

Our friend Gilchrist has told us of the esteem in which Whitman is held in Great Britain.

And indeed, if he cannot consistently claim the merit of discovery, he at least makes a good case in showing that he speaks for a number of the distinguished literati of his realm in promoting a literary renaissance which, but for them, might have awaited a later period for its full germination and development.

and this while whitman lived obscurely in the town which now does him so much honour we acknowledge the debt and appreciate the duty and devotion to a high ideal which made the message from our friends across the seas possible we can only retort in kind that if we are not the original discoverers of british genius the inspired authors of albion have a greater host of admirers here than at home in deference to the legal lights around me i might have said clientage But as, in the absence of copyright, we are accused of stealing our foreign literary ware, perhaps our appreciation is not as substantial as our friends would have it.

Still, we are not altogether parasitic, sucking the sap without imparting anything to the vitality of the parent tree.

however true it might once have been that american books were not read or that there were few or none to be read we have swelled the volume and improved the quality of literature amazingly of later years we have given the world, and especially the English-speaking race, many names that were not born to die.

And among them, we are glad to have the testimony of our eminent artist guest, that in the estimation of his critical countrymen, that of Whitman, like Lee Hunt's lover of his fellow men, leads all the rest.

I have never searched for a clue to Whitman's popularity in the old world or the new.

To me it has seemed manifest.

Those who know the work know the man.

Those who know the man cannot fail to absorb the work.

There is nothing magniloquent or meretricious, no guilt nor gigors about him.

He must have been born at a time when nature, disgusted with the manner which much of her handiwork had been marred by the artificial barriers to wholesome growth set up by stinted standards and stilted schoolmen, made the effort recommended to Mrs. Dombey and gave us a creation that needed no betterment and could sustain no detriment.

Hence his serene placidity when others are bothered about themselves or their neighbors, the little things of their little world, or the bigger things of the bigger world, which cursed spite ordained that they should set aright.

He never quarrels with what is, and doesn't lie awake a night's bothering over what is or is not to be.

He knows his place, oh, rare knowledge, in the universal plan, and fits into his niche as nicely and naturally as though born in it instead of growing into it.

It is this absence of posing and prudery, this avoidance of parade, that makes Walt Whitman so lovable.

It is the connecting link with our common humanity that makes the Olympian Jove our brother and gods and mortals of the same essence.

This it was that induced the colored cook to rush out and be the first to greet our guest this evening.

And this it is that makes the day laborer feel that, without abatement of reverence, he may accost him familiarly.

This human critter, as Whitman calls it, as exemplified in himself, simplifies what with arrogant assumption would otherwise appear complex and confusing.

His character, as said, is the key to his work, and whoso speaketh with and understandeth the right voice is already in communion, even though as widely separated anywhere about the earth as the moon from the tides.

he who comes properly accredited with a sound mind and a sound body divested of pretence and pedantry can breathe in great draughts of space with him on the open road it is this quality of comradeship with those who have no other letters patent than their own nobility of character that opens up through our anti feudal philosopher a democratic vista heretofore closed through exclusive exactions or only to be peered at in the enchantment lent by distance to him in accordance with the laws of their environment cuffy is as worthy of consideration as the president in the halls of authority he is not awed in the presence of calamity he sobs as a child o my captain my father Closing the eyes of so many in their last sleep, the grim messenger to others bears to him only healing on its wings.

The scent of the bloom in lilac time is no simpler than the song of the mystic voices in the redwood tree or the plaint of the bird for its mate.

Like Donatello, who saw and heard in nature sights and sounds that others knew not, his soul, true to itself and its kind, garners and gives forth secrets not taught in the schools.

And to such a soul the closing scene can only offer that light which Goethe, dying, vainly prayed for, his metaphysics and mysticism offering no clue to the beyond.

Lincoln L. Eyrie Philadelphia The Democrat This occasion is more than a personal tribute.

It is a plain step forward in the instincts of the American people.

After a century of banquets to politicians and commercial personages, it is more than gratifying to find even a handful of Americans willing to do special honor to the fittest representative of their indigenous literature.

whitman stands for what is best in american life he is not only greater than the world yet knows but greater than he himself will ever know his personality the atmosphere which envelops him like a white cloud about some mountain peak is more majestic than anything he has yet written walt says he you contain enough why don't you let it out then no not in a score of lifetimes i knew said iolae that hercules was a god the moment my eyes fell on him when i beheld theseus i desired that i might see him offer battle or at least guide his horses in a chariot race but hercules did not wait for a contest he conquered whether he stood or walked or sat or whatever he did such did walt whitman appear to my eyes to-night on the threshold of yonder door godlike and childlike as with one characteristic sweep of the arm he raised his hat above his head greeting us with dignified familiarity a splendid symbol of the all-conquering spirit of democracy whitman's democracy is the foundation upon which will rest his most enduring fame to-day we cannot put ourselves in touch with this the most intricate riddle ever given to man it eludes us huge and towering it confronts us another garishanker unclimbed yet first came the revolutionary period a struggle of colonies rather than men for freedom then there was an infection of bastard democracy from france Then began the long struggle for commercial independence, then the long struggle for the emancipation of slaves.

During what period out of those tumultuous years did American people, setting other issues aside, devote themselves to a serious and systematic study of democracy as a political science? The delusion, now filling the general mind with the flattering belief that we have gloriously worked out a task, which in reality we have not yet begun, is appalling.

It has bred, as an inevitable result, the democracy that flourishes like a rank weed in these treacherously peaceful times.

It has nourished a democracy that reeks with the foulest instincts and purposes, confounding low breeding with humble birth, trampling upon the gentleman and ennobling the blackguard but the gentleman will not slap the pickpocket on the back and play the political harlot to gain his favour so he must stand aside and hold to his virtue and see the degradation of a people who cannot influence their scurvy politicians even to the building of a sewer or the cleaning of a street who can rule themselves in nothing They can come together at a crisis, in a sort of town meeting, to patch up their long-neglected affairs.

Is this democracy? Is this a guarantee of the lasting qualities of free institutions? On the contrary, we are rapidly developing a crisis which will take the shape of a cataclysm as radical as will be tremendous, a conflict likely to be made up of elements absolutely novel and surprising.

and that will shake the structure of this government to its deepest foundries then will come into play for the first time the marvellous genius of the poet who sang the song of myself and by blue ontario's shore like a fertile land unexpectedly revealed out of a receding sea the whole broad territory of whitman's faith will startle an awakening world to a new conception of his promise and his meaning then our children will clearly see what we could but faintly discern that when he cries for comradeship with the loneliest man or thing he chants the true democracy his song is a triumphant symphony in defence of nature all human conventions must bend the knee a leaf of grass is loftier than a cathedral the citizen who would be free must find all life within himself must rule the empire of himself being himself alone america if she would endure must welcome the self-confidence rather than the self-abandonment of her people welcome to thee at the appointed time o true republic welcome then and not till then democracy Whitman, the mortal, outstripping thee by a hundred years, moves with contented spirit toward the ivory gate, ready to sink into the arms of nature, as a child falls to sleep upon its mother's breast.

Whitman, the immortal, awaits thy coming.

End of Section 4

Section 5.

Of Camden's Compliments to Walt Whitman.

By Various.

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

Letters.

Over Sea, Over Land.

From an article by Edward Burtz.

Berlin, June 2nd, 1889.

Walt Whitman was born May 31, 1819,

at West Hills, on Long Island, in the state of New York, and we now celebrate his finishing his 70th year.

A paralytic stroke broke down his former robust constitution many years ago, but through all sufferings he has preserved a calm, cheerful soul while his mind has conserved its youthful freshness.

what he wrote appears in two volumes his poems in leaves of grass and his prose in specimen days and collect this is merely a commemoration of his jubilee if these lines should reach him across the sea they may express the wish to our august friend that the love he devoted to the hundred thousand wounded and sick soldiers north and south during three years of war on the fields and in hospitals may be partially reciprocated by devoted friends in his age and affliction love is the foundation of his poetry and will as surely continue to bear its fruit during ensuing centuries as other great ideas have done heretofore while from our half-barbaric civilization his own consoling words will sweetly compel the hearing of future generations over the carnage rose prophetic a voice be not disheartened affections shall solve the problems of freedom yet those who love each other shall become invincible they shall yet make columbia victorious hallam tennyson from his father lord tennyson to h h gilchrist faringford freshwater isle of wight june twenty second eighteen eighty nine My father has been yachting in the sunbeam.

He thanks you for your letter.

He is not up to writing.

Your banquet and speech seem to have been a great success.

All congratulations.

I am obliged for your letter of 24

May, enclosing a program of the Whitman Testimonial, or dinner in honor of Walt Whitman, which was fixed for 31 May, the 70th anniversary of his birth, and inviting me to send some expression touching the season and the man.

I will only say that I most

heartily sympathize in any demonstration of honor and love towards this great and good American.

a man who, while specially and personally American

in all his feelings, thoughts, and utterances, has, beyond almost all men in literature, gone down to the roots of the human heart and spoken the word for all the world.

I myself always have honored and loved him, and always shall do so.

I consider him to be preeminent among the sons of men for a large human nature, broad, deep, and glowing, and for the power of giving the deepest and most universal expression to the deepest and most universal feelings.

With heart, and with mind he

embraces more than other men do and with voice he proclaims more this is i think his great

and admirable excellence as writer or poet and is quite enough for numbering whitman among the great poetic souls of the world whatever may be his qualifications in point of form or of diction on this matter were i to express my exact opinion i could say a good deal partly to praise and partly to demur but it is a subordinate though far from an unimportant matter and for the present i leave it alone honor and love to walt whitman

this tribute is due from americans from englishmen and from all races

of men

be they the foremost or the backward races

Gabrielle Sarazin, Paris, France.

Written from 67 George Street, Euston Road, London, Northwest, England, June 12, 1889.

Kindly excuse me for not earlier responding to the letter in which you announced the celebration of the 70th anniversary of Walt Whitman's birth in Camden.

Your message found me in London, where I came to pass a month, and I would have wished to write you as soon as I received it, but my health is not always good, and sometimes does not permit me to do what I desire.

If I had been with you on the 31st of May last, this, in substance, is what I would have said in restatement of my views upon the works of the noble poet.

Walt Whitman is, in my opinion, one of the only two living beings, the other is Count Leon Tolstoy, to whom is applicable the name of Apostle.

And if I could permit myself to make a comparison between two men equally great, I would not hesitate to place Whitman one degree above Tolstoy.

Notwithstanding the evangelical goodness of the latter, there is in him too much philosophical pessimism.

and Whitman seems to have a wider and surer outlook.

He is the only man who has absolutely known that man is an indivisible fragment of the universal divinity, that the heart of a man, truly pious, knows how to humble itself without appeal to the adoration of the cosmos, and that instead of losing himself in useless dissertations on the greater or less superiority of this tradition or that religious confession or some other, a man would do much better to love and to serve truly his fellow-creatures.

that is the whole of divinity, because who loves his fellows loves God.

This view, of which Whitman has been, in this era, the practical apostle, this view will renovate the world.

Such, dear sir, is what I would have said if I had been among you on the 31st of May last, and then I would have lifted in my turn my glass, wishing very long life to the august old man, and assuring him of my love.

Please, dear sir, transmit to all the friends of Walt Whitman and Camden my sentiments of cordial sympathy, and believe me also very sincerely yours.

t w rolleston dublin ireland june eighth eighteen eighty nine you invite me to contribute a word of congratulation

to the pamphlet which will commemorate walt whitman's attainment of his seventieth birthday i wish the praise and thanks i give him

were better worth having but he at least does not value such things solely for the distinction of the giver I rejoice to think that my name will be linked with other worthier ones and with his, the worthiest of all, on this occasion.

What I owe to him is among those best and largest things which are not to be defined in human speech.

He it is who has rendered truly sweet and wholesome to me whatever else I have gained from life and literature.

What a triumph of faith and sincerity is denoted by this celebration.

It is well that the memory of the wide world's greatest friend should be linked with proud and joyful thoughts, not with those of pity and indignation.

This is the gain which a life prolonged beyond the completion of his appointed task has brought to the many who now love him, and the multitudes who will do so.

Give him, from one of the former, my hearty good wishes and congratulations.

William Morris Kelmscott House, Upper Mall, Hammersmith, London, England, June 11, 1889 I thank you for the opportunity you have given me to send my heartiest greetings to Walt Whitman.

I have the greatest respect for a man who has shown himself at once so friendly and sympathetic and so independent.