Walt Wbitman

and

mental Science

mtcroicu)

BY

ANNIE

E.

TRIMBLE

A. E. T.
Died
June 20th, 1911

<,

ii

i^ii

Walt Whitman
and

Mental Science
AN
INTERVIEW

By
Annie
E.

Trimble

200 Copies Printed, and

the
No....

Type

Distributed

PS 3242

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^T7

w ALT WHITMAN MENTAL

and
Interviewer:

SCIENCE

AN INTERVIEW

"

And

" Walt

what about Mental Science, "

?

New

Thought, and the

like,

Walt:
" Turn over the Leaves" he answered cheerily,
"it's

all

there.

"

New

Thought and Old.

Old

as the

hills,

and new

as

" to-morrow's sunrise. " about, but the kernel.

"nourishes; you'll find

Not

the husk, the talk round

and

And
it

only the kernel of every object

in the

Leaves.

I've said

it,

and

" what

I've said stands."

Interviewer

"

To

begin at the beginning; as to Personality,

Walt

"
?

Walt:
" One's-self "
I sing,

a simple separate person;

Of

Life immense in passion, pulse and power,

for freest action
I

" Cheerful,

form'd under the laws divine,

" The modern man

sing."

Interviewer

" Ah, "

that's all right," I

answered.

" Personality, Brotherhood,

Good

Cheer, Freedom, Purposefulness, Divine

Laws

for

WALT WHITMAN AND MENTAL

"

SCIENCE

Human

action.
It's

We
big

hold on to them
catalogue,

all,

and more,
missed
out

" Walt.

but

you

Courage.

Walt:
M

Muscle and Pluck

for the

for ever,"

answered Walt.

body and

for the eternal soul,

battles,

" Lo,

come, chanting the chant of

all

"

above

promote brave soldiers."

/ntervien>er:

"

To

the

Mental

Scientist, there

is

no Devil but Fear.

disintegrating

Fear, the

" Father of Lies;

fear,

the

force

which

" weakens and

stultifies

the soldier in his

Battlte of Life.
fear of Death,

"Fear

of Life and what Life

may

bring;

" and of the unknown beyond."

Walt:
"
I will

show you

that there

is

no imperfection

in the present,

and

" can be none "

in the future;

And
And

will

show

that whatever happens to

anybody

it

may be

" turn'd

to beautiful results;

"

will

show

that nothing can

happen more beautiful than

" Death."
Intervierer
"

You

have curious notions about Death, Walt."

Walt:
'

To

die

is

different

from what any one supposed, and luckier."

Walt

smiled a large and beautiful smile.

AN INTERVIEW
Has any one supposed
I

it

lucky to be
it

bom?
just as lucky to die,

hasten to inform him or her

is

and

" know

it

The

smallest sprout
if

shows there
it

is

really

no death,

And
And

ever there

was

led forward

life,

and does not wait

at

" the end

to arrest

it,

ceas'd the

moment

life

appear'd.

" All goes onward and outward, nothing

" "
I
I

collapses.

know

am

deathless

....

laugh at what you call dissolution."

Interviewer :

"

Some
"

Christian Scientists declare that death

will:

is

conquerable by
say

yet
it

they die,"

ventured.

"

What do you

" about

"
?

Walt:
"

To

any one dying

thither I

speed and twist the knob of the

" door, turn the bed-clothes toward the foot of the bed, " Let the physician and " "
"
I

priest

go home.
raise

seize the descending

man and
neck;

him with

resistless will;

O despairer,
" me:

here

is

my

By God, you

shall not

go down, hang your whole weight upon

"
M

dilate

you with tremendous breath,

I
fill

buoy you up;

Every room of the house do

with an arm'd force,

" Lovers of me,

"Sleep;
I

bafflers of graves.
all night,

and they keep guard

"Not

doubt, not deceits, shall dare to lay finger upon you,

SCIENCE

WALT WHITMAN AND MENTAL

I

"

have embraced you, and henceforth possess you

to myself,
I tell

"

And when
"
It
is

you

rise in the

morning you will find what

you

so."
magnificent, overwhelming,

was

could not speak, but

thought, so must Elisha have dealt with the son of the

Shunamite, when he went

in

and closed

the

door upon

them twain and prayed unto the Lord; and

the message have rung out, " Lazarus,
I

just so

must

come

forth."

And

wondered how long

it

would be before each of us

would
in

realize the divinity within us, so as to dare to assert

our

own

right

"

am

the Resurrection

and

the Life."

As

if in

answer

to

my
to

unspoken thought, Walt was saying

think

" None has begun "

how

divine he himself

is

and how

certain the future is."

interrupted here

Interviewer:

" Ah, yes: that " "

is

the

first

lesson in the

New

Thought

God God

is

Health, Life, Love, Truth, Substance, Intelligence:

All.

is

"I am
"

the thought of
I

God,

the idea of the Divine

Mind:

"In him
I

live

and move and have my

being.
free.

am
am
"

spiritual,

harmonious, fearless and

"

governed by the law of

I

God

the everlasting
sin, sickness,

Good, and

am

not subject to the law of

is

and death.

" Since "

I

God

Spirit,

am
I

Spirit.

am

divine, not mortal;

and

the Father are

One."

AN INTERVIEW
Walt
(smiling)

" Divine

am

I inside

and out;
I

"

And
I

make holy whatever

touch or

am

touch'd from

" and yet

"

am

not the poet of goodness only,

also.

do not decline

to

be the

" poet of wickedness

"

Through me many long dumb

voices, surging

and surging;

" Voices of the interminable generations of prisoners and slaves " Voices of the despairing, and of thieves, and dwarfs;

"Voices
M

of them that others look

down upon

Of

the deformed, trivial, flat, foolish, despised

lusts;

" Voices of sexes and

indecent, by me clarified and transfigured. " Down-hearted, doubters, dull and excluded,

" Voices

" Frivolous, "

I

sullen,

moping, angry, affected,

atheistical,

know

every one of you,

know

the sea of torment, doubt,

" despair, and unbelief."

Interviewer

"

And

have you a message for such, Walt?"

asked.

Walt:
"

To

such

say,
are,

" Whoever you

now

place

my hand upon
ear,

you, that you be

" my poem:
"
I I

whisper with

my

lips close to

your

"

have loved many

women and men,

but

love none better than

"you:
" "

None
None

has understood you, but

understand you;

has done justice to you, you have not done justice to

" yourself;

10

WALT WHITMAN AND MENTAL

I

SCIENCE

" None but has found you imperfect, "

"
in

only find no imperfection

you;
I

None

but would subordinate you,

only

am

he

who

will never

" consent to subordinate you; "

I

only

am

he

who

places over

you no master, owner,

in yourself.
.

better,
. .

God,

" beyond what waits intrinsically

" Painters have painted " figure of

all,

their

swarming groups and the

centre-

" From the head of the centre-figure spreading a nimbus of gold" coloured light;

" But

paint myriads of heads, but paint no head without

its

"nimbus
" There
is

of gold-coloured light.
in

...
but as good
is

no endowment

man

or

woman

is

in

you,

"No
"

pluck, no endurance in others but as good

in

you;

No

pleasure waiting for others but an equal pleasure waits for

" you; " Whoever you

are, claim

your

own

at

any hazard."

Interviewer:

"

It is

evident that you strongly realize the

I

power of "suggestion,"
maidens of

"

said;

and

told

him of two

little

my

ac-

" quaintance,
"
rise

six

and seven years young

beds
in in

respectively,

who

from

their

the

mornings,

and who stand

"
"

straight

and strong

their little

white night-dresses, and

who

deep-breathe before an open window, as they gravely

in

" assert

unison,

'

am

wholly whole.'

'

Walt laughed
"

such a big robust laugh

and
.

said.

To

behold the day-break

little

" The
"

light fades the

immense and diaphranous shadows;

palate.
.

The

air tastes

good

to

my

AN INTERVIEW
"The
from bed and

feeling of health;
sun.
is

the song of me, rising

" meeting the " Clear and sweet

my

soul,

and

clear

and sweet

is

all that is

" not my

soul.
is

" Lack one lacks both, and the unseen " " "
I I

proved by the seen.

know
know

I I

am

solid

and sound.

am

august.
is

I exist

as I

am, that

enough.

"
"

chant the chant of dilation and pride;

We

have had ducking and deprecating about enough."

Interviewer:

" Folks

who

didn't understand

you would be apt

I

to consider

you

" a

bit egotistic,

Walt,"

cautiously interjected.

Walt
"
I

(fiercely)

have claim'd nothing to myself which

have not carefully

" claim'd
"

for others
will

on the same terms!

all

By God!

accept nothing which

cannot have their

" counterpart of on the same terms. "

As

if it

harm'd me giving others the same chances and

as if
it

rights as
rights

" myself:

were not indispensable

to

my own

" that others possess the same. " All

I

offset as
lost
I

my own you

shall offset with

your own,

else

it

" were

time listening to me.

see myself,

"In
"

all

people
less.

none more and not one a barley-corn

And

whoever degrades another degrades me."

12

WALT WHITMAN AND MENTAL

SCIENCE

Interviewer :

"

To

change the subject,

devils, poverty

How

do you regard worry, dismals,

like?

" blue

and the

Mental

Scientists assert

" that we can

rid ourselves of all such."

Walt:
" The
real or fancied indifference of

some man or woman

love

" The sickness of one of " or

"
loss,

my

folks or of myself, or ill-doing

or lack of

money

or depressions,

The

fever of doubtful news,

to

...
nights

the

fitful events.

" These come

me days and

and go from me

again,

" But they are not the Me, Myself:

" Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what
I

am;
unitary;

"Stands amused, complacent, compassionating,

" Looks down,
is

idle,

erect

curious

what

will

come next."

/niervien>er;

" Ah,

see, Jealousy,

sickness, poverty, depression, anxiety, are

"

not, to you, foes to

be met and conquered

they are simply

"non-existent; just the imaginary progeny of that imaginary

" Devil, Fear; and as such, not to be reckoned with as

"

actualities

amongst sane and healthy persons.

?

And what

" do you mean by unitary

"

Walt:

"Whole, body and

"
"
I

soul.
is

have said that the soul

I

not

more than
is

the body,

"

And And

have said that the body

not more than the soul

it

nothing, not

God,

is

greater to one than one's self

AN INTERVIEW

13

Interviewer:
**

You

speak often of
?

" you

does the name signify to " Nature, First Cause, Force, the Unknowable ?

God;

what

Walt:
44

I
44

say to mankind,
I,

Be

not curious about

God;
not curious about

For

who am

curious about each,

am

God;

44

No
I

array of terms can say

44

how much

am

at

peace about

God
not

and about Death.

"

hear and behold

God

in every object, yet

understand

God

"
44

in the least;

In the faces of

men and women

see

God, and

in

my own

face
.

"
I

in the glass."

had stayed

far too long with

Walt, but
to

was

loth to leave.

All others seem tame and empty

him; so instead of leaving him,
"
I

me

after being with

asked
?

What

about the Problem of Evil,

'

Walt

You

once spoke of
to him, the

" Hegel as

Your

great authority.'
its

According

" whole earth with

" future
is

infinite variety

of the present, past,

and

a product of creative thought; even the numberless

" apparent failures are held together in Central Unity, and

44

are but radiations of one consistent

and

eternal purpose: so

" vice and disease are but

" valent"

transient,

even tho* ever so pre-

Walt:
" Roaming
.

in

thought over the Universe,

saw

the

little

that

is

good

steadily hastening towards immortality;

is

"

And
44

the vast All that

itself

call'd evil

saw hastening

to

merge

and become

lost

and dead."

14

WALT WHITMAN AND MENTAL

SCIENCE

Intervie&cr:

"

have noticed that

in the

Leaves you make no

direct allusion

"

to the

first

principle of

Mental Science,

the principle of

"Unity, of Oneness; or to the idea of Harmony, that " thought upon which Mental Scientists so often concentrate. " You do not once use the word " Oneness "; and " Unity "
" you use but once, and then in relation to the individual, " and not in relation to the Whole. You speak of

" The vehement struggle so fierce for unity in one's self " " not Metaphysical, Walt, I said reprovingly."

that's

Walt laughed:
" Have
"
" I

not said," he asked, " that

all

The
The
"

base of

Metaphysics

is

dear love of
to friend,

man

for his

comrade, the attraction of friend

" Of " Of

the well-married
city for city,

husband and wife, of children and parents, " and land for land ?

Intervieier

"

Is that

Unity or Harmony

?'

questioned.

Walt:
It's life's music anyhow and have I not spoken of " The joy of concord and harmony ? "
;

"

Interviewer:
"

Yes, but you say nothing of

'

Harmony

'

in

the metaphysical

" sense of Wholeness, the

unification of divergent parts."


AN INTERVIEW
Walt:
"
15

Why,

it is

the very sap of the Leaves," he exclaimed.

;

"
!

It
it's

runs
the

" through every line and vein of them " very Tree of Life itself
!

it's

more

had roused
I

the old Lion, at last:

" Have " "

I

not said," he cried, " that a vast similitude interlocks

all ?

"

He

paused, then the grand words rolled out

mind once

a transparent summer morning,

the peace

....
that

" Swiftly arose and spread about me

" pass
all the

and knowledge

argument of the earth;

And " And " And

"

"

I I

know know

that the

hand of

that the spirit of

God God

is is

the promise of the brother of

my own; my own;
and
the

that all the

men

ever born are also

my

brothers,

" women my

sisters

and

lovers;
is

And
That

that a kelson of the creation

Love."

"

can't be bettered,"

thought,

and

reluctantly

made my

adieux.

As
"

turned,

heard Walt's voice calling merrily after

.

me

" Remember

morning-glory at

my window

satisfies

me more

than

all the

" metaphysics of books."

THE

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