In order to make oneself understood at all one speaks in hyperbole, and doubtless I exaggerate. Whitman was, of course, no God among men, nor was he greater than other poets; in a sense he was even less than the least of them, so subjective was his genius; but since he consciously evokes a new emotion, he has his place among true artists, for Art is the power of evoking the emotion in others which one intends. And since the new emotion seems to be altogether ennobling when it is fully realised, being at once enlarging and integrating to the soul, we ought the more gladly to hail and acknowledge him. I say a new emotion, not meaning, of course, that he is alone in calling up the soul, for no great poetry can leave the soul unstirred; but that no poetry of modern times stirs the soul in the same manner as does that of this full-natured man. So far, I think, we may acknowledge Whitman's success as a poet, and I am not concerned to urge it further. There are many who do not respond to his writings in the way I have indicated, and they naturally refuse him the title. There are others who do, and who accord it to him; and I confess I am of the latter. * * * * * The only American poet who approaches him in sentiment is Emerson. Poems like "Each and All," with its motive of the cosmic unity, "The perfect Whole," or "Brahma," with its reconciling all-inclusiveness, are very near in thought to Whitman; so again is "Merlin" with its Great is the art, Great be the manners of the bard; He shall not his brain encumber With the coil of rhyme and number,-- or "Woodnotes"--"God hid the whole world in thy heart"--or the exclamation "When worlds of lovers hem thee in" of the "Threnody"; or his "Test," when he hangs his verses in the wind. The inspiration of the two men made them akin; but it was far from identical. There are sides of _Leaves of Grass_ which are absent from Emerson's writings, just as there are phases of Emerson's thought which are never really touched by Whitman. But above all, while the works of both are exhilarating to the soul, the emotional reactions from them are quite distinct. Considering Emerson's influence at the time upon all that was most virile in American thought, we might feel certain that some part at least of his teaching had illuminated Whitman's mind, and there is sufficient evidence in his own writings to prove it.[189] He said indeed, that it was Emerson who led him to a spiritual understanding of America, and who finally brought his simmering ideas to the boil.[190] But he also vehemently asserted the independence of _Leaves of Grass_ from any direct Emersonian or other literary influence; and in this the internal evidence of his book supports him. It is really impossible to confuse the flavours of Whitman and of Emerson. * * * * *