His admiration of the heroic deeds of the age of chivalry
arose from a certain inherent knightliness in his own character.
He had the combination of tenderness and strength to which he called attention
in Sir Philip Sidney. His admiration for old English poetry
was due to the "ruddiness in its cheek and the red corpuscles in its veins."
There is in his later prose the "send and drive" of a vigorous soul.
It was this elemental manhood that attracted him to Whitman, despite all
his protests against the latter's carelessness of form and lack of grace.
"Reading him," he says, "is like getting the salt sea spray into one's face."
He had some of the Southerner's resistance to anything like insult.
A story is frequently told in Baltimore of the way in which Lanier resented
the conductor's words to a young lady at a rehearsal of the Peabody Orchestra.
"----, irritated in his undisciplined musician's nerves,
vented that irritation in a rude outburst towards a timid young woman
who was playing the piano, either with orchestra or voice or in solo.
In an instant Lanier's tall, straight figure shot up from his seat and,
taking the chair he occupied in his hand, he said: `Mr. ----,
you must retract every word you have uttered and apologize to that young lady
before you beat another bar.' There was no mistake of his
resoluteness and determination, and Mr. ---- retracted and apologized;
the orchestra went on only after the same had been done."
Another element that contributed to the admirable symmetry
of Lanier's character was that of humor.
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