shing in an old man.
There is none of the tremor, quaver, or shrillness usually observed in
them, but his utterance is clear, ringing, and most sweetly musical. But
it was not in any one of these features that his charm lay so much as in
his _tout ensemble_, and the irresistible magnetism of his sweet, aromatic
presence, which seemed to exhale sanity, purity, and naturalness, and
exercised over me an attraction which positively astonished me, producing
an exaltation of mind and soul which no man's presence ever did before. I
felt that I was here face to face with the living embodiment of all that
was good, noble, and lovable in humanity."

X

British critics have spoken of Whitman's athleticism, his athletic
temperament, etc., but he was in no sense a muscular man, an athlete. His
body, though superb, was curiously the body of a child; one saw this in
its form, in its pink color, and in the delicate texture of the skin. He
took little interest in feats of strength, or in athletic sports. He
walked with a slow, rolling gait, indeed, moved slowly in all ways; he
always had an air of infinite leisure. For several years, while a clerk in
the Attorney-General's Office in Washington, his exercise for an hour each
day consisted in tossing a few feet into the air, as he walked, a round,
smooth stone, of about one pound weight, and catching it as it fell. Later
in life, and after his first paralytic stroke, when in the woods, he liked
to bend down the young saplings, and exercise his arms and chest in that
way. In his poems much emphasis is laid upon health, and upon purity and
sweetness of body, but none upon mere brute strength. This is what he says
"To a Pupil:"--

1. Is reform needed? Is it through you?
The greater the reform needed, the greater the PERSONALITY you
need to accomplish it.

2. You! do you not see how it would serve to have eyes, blood,
complexion, clean and sweet?
Do you not see how it would serve to have such a body and Soul,
that when you enter the crowd, an atmosphere of desire and
command enters with you, and every one is impressed with your
personality?

3. O the magnet! the flesh over and over!
Go, mon cher! if need be, give up all else, and commence to-day to
inure yourself to pluck, reality, self-esteem, definiteness,
elevatedness,
Rest not, till you rivet and publish yourself of your own personalit