FEINBERG/WHITMAN    LITERARY FILE  Prose "Superber Races - Average Development "(undated).A.MS. draft.
Box 36 Folder 58True
What is greatest
[in?]now, under our
circumstances, and in the mod[?] is now
the appearance
of great persons
(who are less &
less needed)
but the operation
of series of
general currents
of opinion, trade, and average developement.And yet Great speakers, great expounders
expounding [every thing] religion, art, literature, manners, all in the American
spirit are always needed. [We need] Such
leadership is needed. The older [I] a man grows, &
the more he [I am enabled to] [is able] enlarges
[improves] & proves & [make]  make clear [my]
his judgments, the more profound will
be his final faith in the elements 
of the masses of [the] the crude ores of humanity, & the more tolerant will he be of [the] their errors.
[crude ore] When I weigh the influences 
at work in the birth, formation & growth of the masses, [of the population of nation] ignorance, poverty the
[disease and] deprivations & the
unfairness of their lot -- I do not 
so much wonder at their [spasms of] [streaks of] viciousness,
[cruelty,] credulity, [and] unfitness
and barbarism -- [of the people] but
wonder that [th] [all this] it is not all ten times
yea a hundred time worse.3
☼(enlightened
by the precious
researches & comparisons,
and superior
advantages and points of
view of our time)
I consider it the [glory] [greatest merit] crowning attitude of [the] a
human intellect to be one from which it calmly looks forth
[and heroic soul of our]
[the present day and land.] [or any day and land.] [as of all days and lands.]
[Not that it] [they]
Neither
to snarl at [our distrust and deny and]
or bewail or lampoon
[bitterly abuse] general humanity as it exists, nor to go off in the clouds in paradisaic dreams about it
while fully conscious of its many crudities
and deficiencies, and its terrible inheritance of diseases &
distortions & unhappiness to never [give] lose 
[up the ] belief in its [the practicability of a ] [its capacity for &] dignity [eliminating]
to develop far superior & wiser & happier & handsomer
races, and never cease [helping] [the] endeavoring toward that 
result. I consider this [belief] [fact] and this effort
not in the light of abstract duty, but as [a] [one's]
[norms] [most precious] the indispensable possession of an American poet & artist, [even] even considered merely for his
own sake, and [fully equal to the rich blessings]
[of bodily health and contented spirit.] I consider
such belief indeed to be the [vital] moral heart action [the systole and diastole]
not only of the true poet and artist but
of every really great and wise man, -- the subtler systole & diastole [that not] [and that]
[its] whose throbbings will not  & cannot [and will not] cease until
the physical heart of him is laid [still and]
cold & still in the grave.