Note 24 — WHITMAN AND EMERSON

In a letter to W. D. O’Connor (see New York Tribune, 18th June 1882) Whitman wrote, “What made and ever makes the argument of Emerson in that walk on the Common dear and holy to me was its personal affectionateness, as of an elder brother to a younger. It was a vehement and even passionate well-wishing, which I felt then, and feel to this hour, the gratitude and reverence of my life could never repay.” (W. S. Kennedy’s “Reminiscences of Walt Whitman,” p. 77.)