(It is vain to skulk—Do you hear that mocking and laughter? Do you hear the ironical echoes?) Books, friendships, philosophers, priests, action, pleasure, pride, beat up and down, seeking to give satisfac tion; He indicates the satisfaction, and indicates them that beat up and down also. Whichever the sex, whatever the season or place, he may go freshly and gently and safely, by day or by night; He has the pass-key of hearts—to him the response of the prying of hands on the knobs. His welcome is universal—the flow of beauty is not more welcome or universal than he is; The person he favours by day or sleeps with at night is blessed. Every existence has its idiom—everything has an idiom and tongue; He resolves all tongues into his own, and bestows it upon men, and any man translates, and any man translates himself also; One part does not counteract another part—he is the joiner he sees how they join. A A He says indifferently and alike How are you, friend? to the President at his levee, And he says Good-day, my brother! to Cudge that hoes in the sugar-field, And both understand him, and know that his speech is right. He walks with perfect ease in the Capitol, He walks among the Congress, and one representative says to another Here is our equal, appearing and new. 4. Then the mechanics take him for a mechanic, And the soldiers suppose him to be a soldier, and the sailors that he has followed the sea, And the authors take him for an author, and the artists for an artist, And the labourers perceive he could labour with them and love them; No matter what the work is, that he is the one to follow it, or has followed it, No matter what the nation, that he might find his brothers and sisters there. The English believe he comes of their English stock, A Jew to the Jew he seems—a Russ to the Russ—usual and near, removed from none. Whoever he looks at in the travellers' coffee-house claims him, The Italian or Frenchman is sure, and the German is sure, and the Spaniard is sure, and the island Cuban is sure; The engineer, the deck-hand on the great lakes, or on the Mississippi, or St. Lawrence, or Sacramento, or Hudson, or Paumanok Sound, claims him. The gentleman of perfect blood acknowledges his perfect blood; The insulter, the prostitute, the angry person, the beggar, see themselves in the ways of him—he strangely transmutes them, They are not vile any more—they hardly know themselves, they are so grown. BURIAL. I.. To think of it! To think of time—of all that retrospection! To think of to-day, and the ages continued henceforward! Have you guessed you yourself would not continue ? Have you feared the future would be nothing to you? Is to-day nothing? Is the beginningless past nothing? To think that the sun rose in the east! that men and women were flexible, real, alive! that everything was alive! To think that you and I did not see, feel, think, nor bear our part! To think that we are now here, and bear our part! 2. Not a day passes—not a minute or second, without an accouchement ! Not a day passes—not a minute or second, without a corpse! The dull nights go over, and the dull days also, The soreness of lying so much in bed goes over, The physician, after long putting off, gives the silent and terrible look for an answer, The children come hurried and weeping, and the brothers and sisters are sent for, Medicines stand unused on the shelf—(the camphor-smell has long pervaded the rooms,) The faithful hand of the living does not desert the hand of the dying, The twitching lips press lightly on the forehead of the dying, The breath ceases, and the pulse of the heart ceases, The corpse stretches on the bed, and the living look upon it, It is palpable as the living are palpable. The living look upon the corpse with their eye-sight, But without eye-sight lingers a different living, and looks curiously on the corpse. 3. To think that the rivers will flow, and the snow fall, and the fruits ripen, and act upon others as upon us now—yet not act upon us! To think of all these wonders of city and country, and others taking great interest in them—and we taking no interest in them! To think how eager we are in building our houses! To think others shall be just as eager, and we quite indifferent! |