Already his mind had responded to the idea of the cosmos and of cosmic enthusiasm,[469] suggested to it in the Hymn of Cleanthes, in certain pages of Marcus Aurelius, Giordano Bruno, Goethe, and the Evolutionists of his own time. To these ideas Whitman brought conviction and reality. It was through his study of the _Leaves_ that Symonds came to understand for himself the infinite value and possibility of human comradeship, and became a glad participant in the Universal Life. For twenty years the two men corresponded as close friends; and there were few in whose admiration for his work Whitman found such keen satisfaction. But Addington Symonds was always a conscientious as well as an affectionate and reverent friend; and while at a later date he publicly protested against Mr. Swinburne's assault,[470] and in his posthumous study of Whitman, proved himself second to none in his admiration of him whom he called Master, yet he himself made some of the frankest and most trenchant criticisms of his friend's work. He thus preserved his independence, and, unlike that of the mere disciple, his praise of Whitman is rendered really valuable by this quality. * * * * * [Illustration: ANNE GILCHRIST] In the summer of 1869, Mr. Madox Brown lent a copy of the _Selections_ to his friend Mrs. Alexander Gilchrist, the widow of Blake's biographer. She responded to the book's appeal, and immediately borrowed Mr. Rossetti's copy of the complete volume.[471] While wholly approving the omission from his _Selections_ of such poems as the "Children of Adam," and herself making some partial reservation with regard to these as perhaps infringing in certain passages the natural law of concealment and modesty, she expressed to Mr. Rossetti, in fervid and impassioned phrases, the joy that came to her in this new gospel, worthy at last as she thought of America. Her friend obtained her permission to allow her letters to him to be published; and they appeared in the Boston _Radical_ for May, 1870. Her words of womanly understanding stirred Whitman too deeply for much outward expression.[472] He hardly regarded them as a declaration of individual friendship, showing himself at the time even a little indifferent[473] to the personality of their writer. They were, he knew, a testimony not so much to him as to his _Leaves of Grass_, which were a half-impersonal utterance, and as such he received them with gratitude.[474] Nothing, not even O'Connor's brilliant vindication, had so justified the poems to their maker. Whitman has been roundly abused by Mr. Swinburne[475] and others, because, as they say, he lacks the romantic attitude toward woman. Mr. Meredith has shown in his own inimitable way the fiends that mask themselves too often under this romantic mien; and one is not always sure whether Whitman's honesty is not in itself a little distasteful to some of his critics.