Whitman’s concept of the “law,” or what he sometimes calls “prudence,”
has elements of the classical idea of karma. “According to the orthodox
[Buddhist] theory, karma simply means the conservation or immortality
of the inner force of deeds, regardless of the author’s physical identity.
Deeds, once committed, good or evil, leave permanent effects on the
general system of sentient beings, of which the actor is merely a compo-
nent part.”^14 Thus “Song of Prudence” states that each person must test
every action by the reaction of the soul, because “whatever satis¤es souls
is true... The soul has that measureless pride which refuses every lesson
but its own.” These poems escape the trap of extreme subjectivism only
by maintaining a ¤rm bond with the material, workaday world. Never-
theless, the idea of following the dictates of one’s soul is based on the
attractive, but questionable, premise that human instincts are invari-
ably benevolent. However, modern history illustrates the grievous con-
sequences that may ensue when the intuitions of self-conceived great
leaders override their sense of humaneness.
The 1856 “Clef Poem” (later truncated to form “On the Beach at Night
Alone”) is a fascinating af¤rmation of the persona’s faith in his own im-
mortality and a preview of the satisfactions he anticipates in the life to
come. As he walks on the beach one starlit night he is overwhelmed by
an inspirational “thought of the clef [or clue] of the universes, and of
the future.” The “thought” takes the form of an anthropocentric analogy
between the familiar satisfactions he has known as a mortal being and the
enhanced satisfactions that he may experience in the afterlife. Neverthe-
less, he questions whether any future existence could prove to be better
than “the life of my body.” “What can the future bring me more than I
have?”... “Do you suppose I wish to enjoy life in other spheres?” But
these musings are only a preamble to another faith-based af¤rmation of
his own personal indestructibility:
I do not know what follows the death of my body,
But I know that whatever it is, it is best for me,
And I know that whatever is really Me shall live just as much
as before.Wishfully, he fantasizes about the satisfactions of the afterlife: “I suppose
I shall have myriads of new experiences—and that the experiences of this
108 / “The Progress of Souls”