New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-06-18

least equa to his The time VIII never coule,
am sure when n Clergyman must cease 10 De gen
tleman but my faith in this particular is not su t
tanned and sOohed by the example oil the new ~ ~
Chadwick. For less than he has zone 10 me '"0
good cannibals have eaten many pisslonary.
WILLIAM DOUGLAS OCoNNOR.
Washington, d, C., June H. 1882.
JUDGING THE CASE on IT'S MERITS
TIE MISTAKE OF TRYING TO REFORM SOCIETY BY
ABoIsuING CLOrHEs-EMERsoS's oUAI4FICA-
TroYs OF HIS APPROVAL OF WHITMAN.
TO ne EdftOr Of The tribune.
SIR: In THE TRIBUNE of May % appeared pas
sionate defence of Mr.. Walt Whitmans poems, by
Mr.. w. d. O'Connor from the charge OF obscenity
recently brought against them by the Prosecuting
Attorney of Boston, with the result OF suppressing
their sale by Messrs. J. X. OsgoOd u Co., the pup
fishers This letter puts forth statements so eX-
traordinary, and deals in such extravagant lauda-
tion of the poet" and in such declamatOry abuse
of all who do not recognize his claims to honor
that it should not pass unchallenged.
wHIrMANs CREED OF ETHICS.
Let us look at the case on It's merits Leaves OF
Grass" is book in which, amid much that Is
trivial and much more that is repulsive, are found
many fresh, noble and elevated sentiments. Inc
theory of the work-,hat which NAV be called its
basis and reason for being-is that all human tunc-
tions spiritual intellectual or corp0rea are equally
divine and honorable. The author begins ana ends
with tine celebration OF the body literally speaking
the flesh as tho hitherto neglected Pgoybnes IN
and rings the changes upSn II III every page re-
turning TO it from each excursion INTO other nels
and heating 1t ont thin with the mCnOtony OF end
less iteration Here is his selt-deciared Gedo sec
ected with entire fairness from the earlier pages Oh
his work and no better or worse either III sHntl-
ment or style, than humorous Ol oVu'I 0n"0I0l''''O
passages:
"Icelebrltc myself;
believe in tie flesh and the appetites.
walt whitman am T. a Kosmos, of mighty Manhattan
yurbncRt f feshy and sensual, eating drinking and
No sentmentast-no stander above men and women, or
apart from them;
No more modest tnan lmmOdeSt.
Unscrew the locks from the doors
Unscrew the doors themselves from their JamDs'
Whoever degrades another degrades me-
And whatever Is done or said returns at last to me-
Through me the aIlatus surgng and surging-through
me the current ami index
7 sbnaf the password prlmeval-I give the sign Of
Rv cod viii accept nothing which all cannot have
their counterpart Of on the same terms
This the refrain which runs through the entire
volume Leaves OF Grass Is glorlhcatlOn OF
the animal man. who is exhibited 70 us-ieSaruiesS
of sex--in puris Raturdlibus Mr. Whitman writes
out for us minute anatomical catalogues OF all the
bodily organs, and calls them poeIns' lie strings
together a long category of human employmentst
juubed Kaleidoscope OF action ana passion ~.
VItuss dance OF the universe" systems ana stars
pell-mell tOgeth En-. and lnvltes us 10 admire III s
poetry His muse Is the most materlalstic Will
not say realstlc) divinity that ever drew breath.
She puues herself upon being of the earth earthly.
She sings the praises of muck and slime IN wholly
numerous VERSE; and remOrselessly pltcles what
mon bv common consent call beauty and virtue
ont of window. his "poet" Will not hear OF the
soul he is so iercely intent upon hugglng his be-
loved body. He has not even grace enough to JOIN
i'm the PRAYER OF the agnOsic: God, If there Is
God, save my soul II | have soul" If eyer by
accident he mounts hcavenward, he doscenus more
quickly aud further than he rose:
He whispers OF the glorious gods,
but leaves Us in the Ullre."
THE CHARGE OF oBsCENI1Y.
Whether his writings are open to the charge of
obscenty is a question of casuistry which may be
left to the lawyers who prosecute under our
statutes and to the judges who interpret them.
We do not know that they are obscene we do know
that they are unprntable and neither THE
tribune nor any other decent Journal IN the two
worlds will consent to soil It's types with them |
Even Mr.. OCOnnOr hides his defence OF them
behind clOud of explosive adJectlyes, lnsteal OF
fair citation aud Justltylng comment E&alUh8 tne
book rs written in Z" the sublime spirit OF our
times he says of one of the passages condemned
that 1t Is merely " the identification through SYM
pathy of ones self with lawless or low,dOwn per-
sons Whatever this may mean, ii only reminds
us of Sir Thomas Browne quaint criticism OF wnaI
fallen man will do in the nrmy of his nature"
Again Mr. OCOnnOr says of another passage COM
planned of obscene. that 1t is lapt celebration
of the acts and OIgans of chaste love-" Now what
is depicted by Whitman IN what 1t IS no abuse OF
words to this brutal passage, is wholly outside
of wedlOck The writer, If report speaks truly, was
never married. In his books i'll numerous passages.
he makes boast of freeloye" principles, and
houts his freedom from every law but the law of
appetite in the face of all the world. The transla-
tors of Martial and BoccacciO veil the grosser i'm
purities of these writers Ill the oOscurlty OF
learned language. Even Montague who, as
Emerson says, pretends to most of the vices
handles certain themes with re,icence and tells us
that he who says all that is to De said guts and
llaU Is Rousseau celebrated
of the savage state with a persuasive eloquence |
which captvated the critics. and won the prizes OF
the Academy OF Dion. Many other writer's an |
cent and modern, have treated erotlc subjects with
so much wit fancy. imagination, nay, even deli
cacy as TO win the World to admiratoh, IL was
such utter frankness of brutality that nine readers
out of ten before they have travelled half through
his book, suffer an attack OF nausea; |
There il no canon OF literary ethics more Just In
itself or more widely accepted than that expressed
in the couplet of RoscOmmon:
"Immodest words admit OF no defence,
For want OF deeency ID want OF sense"
II NAV suit the nature or the caprice of Mr.. Walt
Whitman to go naked lat least such conclusion ls
fairly derlvable from his poems y" but Civilized
mankind yet retain marked p;eludlce IN tavor Oh
clothes. 1t may accord with ha tastes and desires
TO batter down all the doors of the domestic sane
tum but the vast majority OF men and women Will
sll guard the sacred privacy Of home, and Will re
fuse to believe the arrogant dlctum OF this
apostle Of the uncean that virtue and vice are one
Because tho functions OF nature are all natural, II
by no means follows that they are all to De per-
formed or celebrated in public. Grant il you WILL
that the most of modern civilization is sham; 1t
does not follow that our REDEMPTION is to be found
n the gospel of carnallty accor,iin TO alt Whit
man. One might, perhaps. be persuaded, IN some
ecstatic mood when nature is bursting into full
efiulgence. to join in his worship of the god Pan
but when he insists upon aGdlpg 10 1t the worship
of the god Priapus, IL is exacting altogether too
much from us. We have heard of the Ilndoo
Brahnin, who arrived ut the perfection OF the
absolute by the fixed contemplation Of his own
navel; but the results thus far achieved do not
warrant us in entertaining any very exalted hopes
of human pcrfectibility from the physical intro
spections of Mr.. Walt Whitman.
MISTAKE OF THE PROSECUTION.