e it? The least poet and
poetling lisps some word or syllable of it. The masters build its temples
and holy places. All own it, all receive it gladly. But the gospel of
life, there is danger that we shall not know it when we hear it. It is a
harsher and more heroic strain than the other. It calls no man to his
ease, or to be lulled and soothed. It is a summons and a challenge. It
lays rude, strong hands upon you. It filters and fibres your blood. It is
more of the frost, the rains, the winds, than of cushions or parlors.

The call of life is a call to battle always. We are stronger by the
strength of every obstacle or enemy overcome.

"Listen! I will be honest with you,
I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes,
These are the days that must happen to you:

"You shall not heap up what is called riches,
You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve;
You but arrive at the city to which you were destined--you hardly settle
yourself to satisfaction, before you are called by an irresistible
call to depart.
You shall be treated to the ironical smiles and mockings of those who
remain behind you;
What beckonings of love you receive, you shall only answer with
passionate kisses of parting,
You shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reached hands
toward you.

"Allons! After the GREAT COMPANIONS! and to belong to them!"

XVI

Whitman always avails himself of the poet's privilege and magnifies
himself. He magnifies others in the same ratio, he magnifies all things.
"Magnifying and applying come I," he says, "outbidding at the start the
old cautious hucksters." Indeed, the character which speaks throughout
"Leaves of Grass" is raised to the highest degree of personal exaltation.
To it nothing is trivial, nothing is mean; all is good, all is divine. The
usual distinctions disappear, burned up, the poet says, for religion's
sake. All the human attributes are heightened and enlarged; sympathy as
wide as the world; love that balks at nothing; charity as embracing as the
sky; egotism like the force of gravity; religious fervor that consumes the
coarsest facts like stubble; spirituality that finds God everywhere every
hour of the day; faith that welcomes death as cheerfully as life;
comradeship that would weld the nation into a family of brothers;
sexuality that makes prudes shudder; poetic enthusiasm that scornfully