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The Physical System

About This Item

  • Title: The Physical System
  • Date: 11 January 1859
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01088
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 11 January 1859: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Kaylen Michaelis Tara Ballard Stephanie Blalock Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "The Physical System." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 17 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01088.xml (TEI)
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THE PHYSICAL SYSTEM.—

No keenness or culture of intellect, says a recent writer, that does not embrace the culture of health—no wealth, no morality, and not even a religion, that does not embrace the preservation of the physical system from all deterioration, and its cultivation to the highest perfection—will ever last long. No nation or people will ever preserve the weight of influence to which they were naturally entitled, among others, without manliness of development as the only reliable foundation of manliness and reliability of character. All that tends to produce these is so far a vital good.

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