a miracle that Socrates lasted as long as he did; it is rather a shock
that Jesus could preach even for three years, given his absolute
Selfl essness.
Young men and women may come again to understand that Self
at its best is a protection, and only a protection, for the life of Soul,
and that when the moment comes for Soul to exert itself— Whitman’s
moment came in 1854 and 1855 when he wrote and published the
stunning poems— Self must stand aside. It’s said that when Wallace
Stevens stepped into the room wearing his three- piece suit and his
insurance man’s frown, the temperature dropped twenty degrees.
How much strength of Self was necessary to defend the Soul who
wrote “Sunday Morning” and Notes toward a Supreme Fiction?
Clearly a great deal. It is always dangerous to invoke Self to protect
Soul, as Whitman and Stevens did. Self, given freedom, can con-
sume Soul, or counterfeit it. But in a world as greedy and violent as
this one, Self ’s tough guidance and protection may be a necessity.
The young who wish a better world will also see that what ap-
pear to be tensions among the ideals are only apparent. Is the war-
rior the exclusive inverse of the man or woman of compassion? To
everything there is a season. There will always be a time when we
need defense from our enemies, our real enemies, and then Hector
is the fi gure we will not be able to do without. Compassion may be
our central ideal in the time of peace, but peace is not forever.
There are seasons too for the individual. She may fi nd herself at
one time an aspiring thinker, at another a fi ghter, at a third a cre-
ator. And she will judge herself not only on the feeling of fullness
that these ideals create within but also on what she contributes to
other people by virtue of engaging her ideals. Hope will replace
desire and for a while she will feel free. She may at times feel con-
sumed by Self. There will be a family to feed and protect, aging
parents to tend; there will be the push and toss of daily life— the
“pulling and hauling” as Whitman calls it. But in every act of
258 Polemical Conclusion