Whitman's doctrine of equality is again really not unlike Nietzsche's doctrine of inequality; for it only asserts the equality of individuals because of the overman latent in each one; and is different enough from the undistinguishing equalitarianism of popular philosophy. But Whitman had the balancing qualities which Nietzsche lacked. As he said once to Mr. Pearsall Smith: "I am physically ballasted so strong with weightiest animality and appetites, or I should go off in a balloon". In his case, self-assertion was not associated with mania; for it never snapped those ties of comradeship and love which keep men human, but became instead a bond for fuller and nobler relations with men and women. The comparison with Nietzsche suggests the limits of Whitman's Hegelianism. For though he once declared that he "rated Hegel as Humanity's chiefest teacher and the choicest loved physician of my mind and soul"; and again, that his teaching was the undercurrent which fructified his views of life,[649] yet it may well be doubted whether he ever really mastered the full Hegelian theory, or realised the futility of many of those generalisations in which German idealism has been so prolific. It was because Hegel saw life, both the Me and the Not Me, as a single Whole, and found a place for evil in his world-purpose, that Whitman hailed him as the one truly "American" thinker of the age. But in the individualism of Nietzsche is the partial corrective of Hegel's position; and as I have suggested, Whitman would have accepted it as such. * * * * * Perhaps the foregoing very rough and ready comparisons may have thrown some light on the outstanding features of Whitman's personal message and influence. But there remains another, which I have already suggested, and to which for a moment we must return. Whitman was essentially a prophet-mystic, and while he derived nothing from most of the men with whom his thought is related, the indirect influence upon him of George Fox the Quaker is certain.[650] Fox's distinguishing quality was his intense personal reality; there are few more vivid figures on any page of history. This seems to be due to the fulness of life which he realised, and could focus in his actual consciousness. From this he did not derive "advanced views" but vital power. And vital power is equally, and perhaps in fuller measure, characteristic of Whitman, manifesting itself by various signs in his daily life, and in the phrases of his book. In Whitman, as in Fox, this was an attractive power of extraordinary force. Around Fox it created a Society of Friends; and one cannot doubt that sooner or later a world-wide Fellowship of Comrades will result from the life-work of Whitman.