Standish O'Grady; selected essays and passages

276 STANDISH O'GHADY
in him admiration and wonder of the deepest and sincerest
character. The practical acknowledgment of a quality
in all relations of life, enormous territories over which
the Flag of the Union floats, the terrible war so bravely
fought and the excision for ever of the canker of slavery
from American soil, the perpetual influx of immigrants
from all parts of the world, the energy, vigour and in-
telligence of all native Americans, the combination of
central and local government, the enormous and rapid
advance of material civilisation, the noble cities that start
up in desolate regions within the compass of a few years,
the numerous ports and maritime cities and the vast
mercantile marine necessary to support the rapidly
increasing commerce of the country, the mighty rivers that
traverse the land, and the vast uninhabited territories
of the interior and the West, which the ploughshare
and the woodman's axe are rapidly invading—all this
has wondrously stirred and fired the imagination of
Whitman.
Whitman lays strong emphasis on physical happiness
and those forms of spiritual pleasure which are most
closely allied with the physical. This has been to many
a stumbling block and rock of offence. Scholastic and
monkish views have evidently not yet disappeared. In
real life the importance of physique and of physical
health and the irresistible attractions of mere beauty are
always recognised. They must be recognised. They
make their mark as irresistibly as gravitation or any of the
known laws of nature. Yet in our higher literature all
this has been neglected for sentiment and the cultiva-