acter which he has exploited in his poems a faithful compend of
American humanity, and to do this the rowdy element could not be entirely
ignored. Hence he unflinchingly imputes it to himself, as, for that
matter, he has nearly every sin and dereliction mankind are guilty of.

Whitman developed slowly and late upon the side that related him to social
custom and usage,--to the many fictions, concealments, make-believes, and
subterfuges of the world of parlors and drawing-rooms. He never was an
adept in what is called "good form;" the natural man that he was shows
crude in certain relations. His publication of Emerson's letter with its
magnificent eulogium of "Leaves of Grass" has been much commented upon.
There may be two opinions as to the propriety of his course in this
respect: a letter from a stranger upon a matter of public interest is not
usually looked upon as a private letter. Emerson never spoke with more
felicity and penetration than he does in this letter; but it is for
Whitman's own sake that we would have had him practice self-denial in the
matter; he greatly plumed himself upon Emerson's endorsement, and was
guilty of the very bad taste of printing a sentence from the letter upon
the cover of the next edition of his book. Grant that it showed a certain
crudeness, unripeness, in one side of the man; later in life, he could not
have erred in this way. Ruskin is reported saying that he never in his
life wrote a letter to any human being that he would not be willing should
be posted up in the market-place, or cried by the public crier through the
town. But Emerson was a much more timid and conforming man than Ruskin,
and was much more likely to be shocked by such a circumstance.

It has been said that the publication of this letter much annoyed Emerson,
and that he never forgave Whitman the offense. That he was disturbed by it
and by the storm that arose there can be little doubt; but there is no
evidence that he allowed the fact to interfere with his friendship for the
poet. Charles W. Eldridge, who personally knew of the relations of the two
men, says:--

"There was not a year from 1855 (the date of the Emerson letter and its
publication) down to 1860 (the year Walt came to Boston to supervise the
issue of the Thayer & Eldridge edition of 'Leaves of Grass'), that Emerson
did not personally seek out Walt at his Brooklyn home, usually that they
might have a long symposium together at the Astor House in New York