HENRY JAMES
441
In such a context is understandable also his consternation after
having revealed his problem at finding it "treated but to a compara–
tive pooh-pooh-an impression I long looked back to as a sharp part–
mg of the ways, with an adoption of the wrong one distinctly deter–
mined" ( 7, p. 330) . The great surgeon to whom his father conducted
him for consultation in Boston might at least have offered some warn–
ing of what was in store. Obviously, the surgeon, with a not uncom–
mon lack of interest in psychological implications, did not even begin
to fathom the depths to which the experience of his patient reached,
aHd the patient, feeling much from these depths, was the more ap–
palled at the medical advice he received. Corresponding to this neg–
ative aspect is a positive one-the orientation which James tells of
adopting toward his injury in trying to come to terms with it. In the
late summer of 1861 he visited a camp of invalid and convalescent
troops in Rhode Island. He had here his "first and all but sole vision
ol
the American soldier in his multitude, and above all-for that was
markedly the colour of the whole thing-in his depression,
his
wasted
melancholy almost; an effect that somehow corresponds for memory,
I bethink myself, with the tender elegiac tone in which Walt Whit–
man was later on so admirably to commemorate him" (7, pp. 310
f. ) .
James tells of talking with the soldiers and comforting them as he
could, not only with words but by "such pecuniary solace as I might
at brief notice draw on my poor pocket for. Yet again, as I indulge
this memory, do I feel that I might if pushed a little rejoice in having
to such an extent coincided with, not to say perhaps positively antici–
pated, dear old Walt-even if I hadn't come armed like him with
oranges and peppermints. I ministered much more summarily, though
possibly in proportion to the time and thanks to my better luck more
pecuniarily; but I like to treat myself to making out that I can scarce
have brought to the occasion (in proportion to the time again and to
other elements of the case) less of the consecrating sentiment than
he" (7, pp. 314 f.).
As
he sailed back to Newport that night feeling
considerably the worse for his exertion in his "impaired state," there
established itself in
his
mind, "measuring wounds against wounds,"
a correspondence between himself and the soldiers "less exaltedly than
wastefully engaged in the common fact of endurance" (7, p. 318).
Another heartening aspect presented itself at the Harvard Law
School, which he at this time attended for some months, where the
"bristling horde of ... comrades fairly produced the illusion of a mus–
tered army. The C)ambridge campus was tented field enough for a
conscript starting so compromised; and I can scarce say moreover how
