The Washington herald., 1916-10-19
The LincoIns and Whitmans
By JOHN d. BARRY.

Whitman must have a very good time in
life. "Ah, but they are the exceptional
people" I suppose they are; but I won
der If they are really as exceptional as
they seem to be. I suspect that there are
great many Walt Whitmans in the
world and a great many Lncolns. Per
haps I ought to say, to be closer to what
1 have in mind, that there are many
men who, under favoring conditions,
could develop into Lincolns and Whit
mans. The Lincoln and the Whitman
that we know happened to be marvel
ously successful. each in his own way.
Through their success they doubtless lost
all as we'll as gained. Behind their gain
and their loss, however, stood those
qualities that made them what they es-
sentlaly were. qualities often duplicated
Whitman first lived his poetry. The cir
Cumstances that made him put It INTO
writing may have been accidental There
are men now living all about US who are
in their nature like Whitman. They
would be astonished II they were told
that they were poets. They may even
hate poetry, that Is, those printed eG-
pressions Of consciousness that We call
by that name or they may think that
they hate II or they may have some klno
of prejudice against it. They simply
have not been trained to realize their re-
lation to such reaction and to enjoy see
ing themselves recorded in this way by
others exactly like themselves in spirit
The spirit that lies in all great itera-
ture. that lives long after the conscious
ness that gave il being has ceased TO
operate on the human plane. II il has a
consciousness OF its own. must gTteVe
AT the barriers that separate ii from
those IL longs to reach, with chords in
their nature ready TO vibrate with its
harmonies On the other hand, II Il has
a consciousness, II may rejoice in those
spirits who spread its harmonies by liv-
ing. who are so much finer and greater
than they ever suspect themselves TO be,
that go singing through the world in
feelings and thoughts and deeds.
Similarly the LIncolns live beside US.
Now and then we may be clear visioned
enough 10 see them and 70 rejoice in the
privilege Of knowing them and sharing
their easy expressions OF good will. Look
about in your acquaintance and see II
you can't find q Lincoln The type is
commoner than the Whitman type,
though the Whitmans are by no means
rare. Our life tends TO develop, or rather,
to make conspicuous fewer Whitmans
than Lincolns, perhaps because II is so
practical. Whitman. shrewd as he was
in some ways. with the universal human
contradiction al times startling in poets,
was a living protest against the practical
and living embodiment Of the beauty
that might go with the impractical and
with the wealth so curiously disre-
garded in our thrifty society. Lincoln
belonged to his period and expressed the
best OF its ideals He played the game.
50 TO speak, and he played II well Sew
ha w hEV
seemed to me to be Lncolns. One was
an old farmer who lived In Maine with
a nature seemingly as broad as the uni
verse, as delicate. in spite Of its rough
exterior, as a flower. enriched with the
kind OF tolerance that seemed unaware
OF human distinctions and free from the
degrading instinct TO resent and TO pun
Ish. Another was a lawyer who had pass
ed through an elaborate college training
without losing any OF his big elemental
sympathies.
OF Whitmans I have known very few
perhaps because they are not likely 10
flourish IN the restricted paths where I
nave got into the ha hit Of walking They
seldom reveal themselves, for example,
in cities and among the people that like
to consider themselves sophisticated. As
d rule, they wear the kind Of clothes that
the sophisticated have chosen to con-
=
But no prejudices can bother the Whit
mans. They live in g realm where pref
udice pines away and dies through neg
lect. They walk through the world with
q freedom that is one Of their most en-
via Bile possessions. Just to see them sail
ing along. apparently on intimate terms
with the whole universe is in Itself an in
spiration. Not TO know a Whitman is to
be deprived Of q reward Of living and a
70
ed with people who wouldn't care to
know one and who, II they happened to
meet one, would never think OF keeEing
up the acquaintance.
There are those who speak Of Abraham
Lincoln as If he had been divinely sent
into the world to meet a great occa sion
md to do a great work hope l shall
not seem irreverent II frankly disagree
with this view. I don't believe that he
was sent for any special occasion or
work do believe that while he was
meeting that occasion and doing that
work there were many other IIncolrs
who might have served Just as well And
I don't agree with those literary critics
who think that Walt Whitman was sent
here on the great mission Of liberalizing
Joy In brotherly love. in comradeship and
in the appreciation OF the marvels speak
ing out Of the apparently commonplace
and making everyday life luminous and
magical While Walt Whitman was sing
ing aloud the other Whitmans were max
ing a great chorus. The best he could
do and the best Lincoln could do was to
remind US that, far from being excep-
tional, they represented the common eIe-
ments OF man, elements, when conspicu-
ously displayed, suggesting an ever abun-
dant and an all-wise and resplendent
origin.
When we feel dispirited or pessimistfc
or when we think that we have been in
Jured by this person or that person. or
when We fall into the mood where the
petty things OF life take the center OF the
stage and try to pass themselves on as
the whole show, it is well for US to think
of the Whitmans and the Lncolns and to
ask how they would behave In our place.
Would they be moping?