Content:
This heavily revised manuscript contains prose notes describing the "mental and moral connexions" between America and other lands. While dating the manuscript is difficult, Whitman's use of the phrase "full sized men and women" suggests a composition date from the 1850s, as he used a similar phrase in the Preface to the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, in his 1856 reply to Emerson's letter of praise for the first edition of
Leaves
, and in the poem "Song of the Broad-Axe" (1856). Thus, the manuscript likely dates from sometime in the 1850s. However, it does not seem that this manuscript directly contributed to any of those works.
