had it; no matter, he has aided civilisation enormously.  He as good as created the steamship industry in America; he reorganised the railway system with admirable results; by adding so much to the circulating capital of the country, he provided well-paid employment for unnumbered men.  Thousands of homes should bless the name of Vanderbilt—­and what is the state of a world in which such a man can do such good by such means?  Well, I have nothing to say to it.  It is merely part of the tremendous present, which interests me.

’And I once stood up in my pulpit, and with mild assurance addressed myself to the task of improving the world!  Do not make fun of me when we meet again, dear friend; I am too bitterly ashamed of myself.

’It seems a long time since you told me anything of Thyrza.  I do not like to receive a letter from you in which there is no mention of her name.  Does she still find a resource in her music?  Are you still kind to her?  Yes, kind I know you are, but are you gentle and affectionate, doing your utmost to make her forget that she is alone?  You do not see her very frequently, I fear.  I beg you to write to her often, the helpful letters you can write to those whom you love.  She can repay you for all trouble with one look of gratitude.’

(Three months later.)

’I am sending you Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass.’  I see from your last letter that you have not yet got the book, and have it you must.  It is idle to say that you cannot take up new things, that you doubt whether he has any significance for you, and so on.  You have heart and brain, therefore his significance for you will be profound.

’I would not write much about him hitherto; for I dreaded the smile on your face at a new enthusiasm.  I wished, too, to test this influence upon myself thoroughly; I assure you that it is easier for me now to be sceptical than to open my heart generously to any one who in our day declares himself a message-bringer to mankind.  You know how cautiously I have proceeded with this American vates.  At first I found so much to repel me, yet from the first also I was conscious of a new music, and then the clamour of the vulgar against the man was quite enough to oblige me to give him careful attention.  If one goes on the assumption that the ill word of the mob is equivalent to high praise, one will not, as a rule, be far wrong, in matters of literature.  I have studied Whitman, enjoyed him, felt his force and his value.  And, speaking with all seriousness, I believe that he has helped me, and will help me, inestimably, in my endeavour to become a sound and mature man.

’For in him I have met with one who is, first and foremost, a man, a large, healthy, simple, powerful, full-developed man.  Bead his poem called ’A Song of Joys’—­what glorious energy of delight, what boundless sympathy, what sense, what spirit!  He knows the truth of the life that is in all things.  From joy in a railway train ’the laughing locomotive!  To push with resistless way and speed off in the distance’—­to joy in fields and hillsides, joy in ’the dropping of rain-drops in a song,’ joy in the fighter’s strength, joy in the life of the fisherman, in every form of active being—­ aye, and