Arizona republican., 1892-05-31
WHITMAN ABROAD.
WHAT LEADING LITERARY MEN OF
 BRITAIN THOUGHT OF HIM.
''The Mermaid Club" in Dublin Univer- sity-Society of "The waltwhitmani- scs''-Professor Dowden's Views on the Character and Influence of Whitman.
Correspondence of TnE REPUBLICAN.


 of Trinity college, Dublin university, one of the most agreeable literary soci- cites to which it was then considered fashionable to belong, was known as the Mermaid club, the title of which was borrowed from the famous gathering which included such wits as Shakes peare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher and other world renowned worthies of the Elizabcthan era.
 Foremost among the scholars and thinkers, not only of the society, but of the university, stood Edward Dowden, university professor of English litera- ture, man with mind of the strongest and finest fiber and character of such force and elevation as to challenge the reverence of the widest undergraduates and the most sincere respect of his col leagues among the fellows and profess ors.
 The Mermaid club met once in two weeks at the college rooms or private residence of some member in rotation, and during term we held one or two meetings at the house of Mir. Dowden Upon one of the latter occasions hap pened to see upon the library table a paper covered volume of Walt Whit mans "Leaves of Grass" book which for some time had been attracting con siderable attention among university men and in literary circles of the Irish capital.
 Mir. Dowden, whose word was law upon such matters. had recently dC,iv- cred lecture upon Walt Whitman, and young men who remembered LonEIel- lows advice about lever seeking some thing new" professed enthusiasm on the subject of this new evangel. Disciples of the western teacher were known as "Waltwhitnaniacs," and on the. well established principle that martyrs blood is the seed of the church, our Organiza- ton prospered through suffering. We met contempt with scorn and greeted criticism with the retort that Father Walt" was above criticism.
 The fact of the matter is that many of us did not understand what Whit man was driving at," and the small movement with which we were asso- ciated may have been merely revolt against the satiety of uper-refinement in literature which was being domi- mated by Tennyson and debauched by Swinburne. As we had vague ideas that Victor Hugo's romanticism had broken through the traditions of French classical drama, so we believed that Whitman's realism furnished a new link in the chain of worldwide poetic development. At all events the unin- telligible is always magnificent to youth full and aspiring souls and according ly we had faith in Whitman for the same reason that other good Christians believe in the thirty-nine articles.
 Anxious then for Mir Dowden's opin- ion, ventured to say, upon the occasion mentioned, "Mr. Dowden, do you regard Walt Whitman as an educated many'
 Well" he said, Walt has probably not had what is called the advantage of university education His father did not spend as much money in having him taught to write bad Latin and worse Greek verses as our fathers have spent upon us, but there are a great many i'm portant things in the world beside clas- sical languages and the higher mathe- matics, and Walt Whitman knows more about such things than you or do. In the largest, widest sense he is thor Oughly well educated man, and, as the exponent of a world embracing democ- racy, he opens our hearts and minds tS greater possibilities for the whole hu- man race than any writer is capable of doing who works within the prescribed literary formulas.
 "The ideas upon which much of our poetry rests have been few in number, practically exclusive, and now worn almost threadbare. Whitman adds enor- mously to the number and magnitude of poetical subjects. He has gone into the coal mine, tho canal boat, miserable dens in tenement houses and on the back streets of great cities into jails, aims houses, churches, hospitals and work shops, and moving freely among all classes of the worlds toilcrs he has ob- served the dignity and worth and noble possibilities of human character, even under sordid and frequently tragic con ditions.
 He has felt keeuly this misery of the human race, and tO the best of his ability has offered remedies, but his most ef- fective one is his constant and strong expression of nopefulness In the destiny of the race, as indicated by confidence in the progress of America, in the power of human reason and effort to remove prevailing distress, and implicit belief in the wisdom of the scheme upon which this universe was conceived and devel- oped.
 "In other words, he is democrat in the old sense. He believes that the sup precision of the people must give place to freedom for their fullest develop ment; ard he is an optimist who trusts to natural forces for a millennium which has been conceived in America, and which can only be realized on the lines laid down under the favorable condi- tions which have prevailed in that coun- try for the first time in the worlds his tory, Such opinions are of the grayest import to community whose best poetry is penetrated with the sadness of existence and the futility of human aims, and whose general literature is one long glorifcation of wealth, social position or military power.'
 Shortly after this meeting of the Mermaid club" Mir. Dowden was chal- lenged by certain people prominent in literary and art circles to defend in public discussion Whitman's literary methods and social views. The pro lessor, although very modest and re- tiring man. felt it his duty to do battle Tor an absent friend. A great meeting ......- ..---.l 1