Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/346

passed, with the Walden residence and its emphasis of his mission as nature-interpreter, the naturalistic tastes seemed to submerge the literary and critical. He also became more concerned with the problems of morality and government, less devoted to literary models. Once again, in later years, he became interested in an author whose genius and crudeness evoked many comments in Thoreau's letters. During a visit to New Jersey in 1856, he called on Walt Whitman. In a letter to Mr. Blake, after the incident, Thoreau wrote,—"He is apparently the greatest democrat the world has ever seen. He is very broad, but, as I have said, not fine." Thoreau was essentially "fine," he was sensitively repelled by any coarseness, in whatever veneer of refinement. This quality combated his desire to appreciate Whitman. Always recognizing the latter's democracy, religious faith, and affinity with nature, Thoreau could not excuse his treatment of sexual love. To him no sentiment was so delicate, so sacred, too holy for bald or open "celebration." He said of Whitman's attitude,—"He does not celebrate love at all. It is as if the beasts spoke." He was, however, too large a man in judgment to allow these disagreeable interpolations to dim his impress of Whitman's real power and stimulus. After he had read with care the