Chapter 15
The workmanship of souls is by the inaudible words of the earth; The great masters know the earth's words, and use them more than the audible words.
Amelioration is one of the earth's words; The earth neither lags nor hastens; It has all attributes, growths, effects, latent in itself from the jump; It is not half beautiful only--defects and excrescences show just as much as perfections show.
The earth does not withhold--it is generous enough; The truths of the earth continually wait, they are not so concealed either; They are calm, subtle, untransmissible by print; They are imbued through all things, conveying themselves willingly, Conveying a sentiment and invitation of the earth. I utter and utter: I speak not; yet, if you hear me not, of what avail am I to you? To bear--to better; lacking these, of what avail am I?
_Accouche! Accouchez!_ Will you rot your own fruit in yourself there? Will you squat and stifle there?
The earth does not argue, Is not pathetic, has no arrangements, Does not scream, haste, persuade, threaten, promise, Makes no discriminations, has no conceivable failures, Closes nothing, refuses nothing, shuts none out; Of all the powers, objects, states, it notifies, shuts none out.
The earth does not exhibit itself, nor refuse to exhibit itself--possesses still underneath; Underneath the ostensible sounds, the august chorus of heroes, the wail of slaves, Persuasions of lovers, curses, gasps of the dying, laughter of young people, accents of bargainers, Underneath these, possessing the words that never fail.
To her children, the words of the eloquent dumb great Mother never fail; The true words do not fail, for motion does not fail, and reflection does not fail; Also the day and night do not fail, and the voyage we pursue does not fail.
3.
Of the interminable sisters, Of the ceaseless cotillons of sisters, Of the centripetal and centrifugal sisters, the elder and younger sisters, The beautiful sister we know dances on with the rest.
With her ample back towards every beholder, With the fascinations of youth, and the equal fascinations of age, Sits she whom I too love like the rest--sits undisturbed, Holding up in her hand what has the character of a mirror, while her eyes glance back from it, Glance as she sits, inviting none, denying none, Holding a mirror day and night tirelessly before her own face.
Seen at hand, or seen at a distance, Duly the twenty-four appear in public every day, Duly approach and pass with their companions, or a companion, Looking from no countenances of their own, but from the countenances of those who are with them, From the countenances of children or women, or the manly countenance, From the open countenances of animals, or from inanimate things, From the landscape or waters, or from the exquisite apparition of the sky, From our countenances, mine and yours, faithfully returning them, Every day in public appearing without fail, but never twice with the same companions.
Embracing man, embracing all, proceed the three hundred and sixty-five resistlessly round the sun; Embracing all, soothing, supporting, follow close three hundred and sixty- five offsets of the first, sure and necessary as they.
Tumbling on steadily, nothing dreading, Sunshine, storm, cold, heat, for ever withstanding, passing, carrying,
The Soul's realisation and determination still inheriting; The fluid vacuum around and ahead still entering and dividing, No baulk retarding, no anchor anchoring, on no rock striking, Swift, glad, content, unbereaved, nothing losing, Of all able and ready at any time to give strict account, The divine ship sails the divine sea.
4.
Whoever you are! motion and reflection are especially for you; The divine ship sails the divine sea for you.
Whoever you are! you are he or she for whom the earth is solid and liquid, You are he or she for whom the sun and moon hang in the sky; For none more than you are the present and the past, For none more than you is immortality.
Each man to himself, and each woman to herself, such as the word of the past and present, and the word of immortality; No one can acquire for another--not one! Not one can grow for another--not one!
The song is to the singer, and comes back most to him; The teaching is to the teacher, and comes back most to him; The murder is to the murderer, and comes back most to him;
The theft is to the thief, and comes back most to him; The love is to the lover, and conies back most to him; The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to him--it cannot fail; The oration is to the orator, the acting is to the actor and actress, not to the audience; And no man understands any greatness or goodness but his own, or the indication of his own.
5.
I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her who shall be complete! I swear the earth remains jagged and broken only to him or her who remains broken and jagged!
I swear there is no greatness or power that does not emulate those of the earth! I swear there can be no theory of any account, unless it corroborate the theory of the earth! No politics, art, religion, behaviour, or what not, is of account, unless it compare with the amplitude of the earth, Unless it face the exactness, vitality, impartiality, rectitude, of the earth.
I swear I begin to see love with sweeter spasms than that which responds love! It is that which contains itself--which never invites, and never refuses.
I swear I begin to see little or nothing in audible words! I swear I think all merges toward the presentation of the unspoken meanings of the earth; Toward him who sings the songs of the Body, and of the truths of the earth; Toward him who makes the dictionaries of words that print cannot touch.
I swear I see what is better than to tell the best; It is always to leave the best untold.
When I undertake to tell the best, I find I cannot, My tongue is ineffectual on its pivots, My breath will not be obedient to its organs, I become a dumb man.
The best of the earth cannot be told anyhow--all or any is best; It is not what you anticipated--it is cheaper, easier, nearer; Things are not dismissed from the places they held before; The earth is just as positive and direct as it was before; Facts, religions, improvements, politics, trades, are as real as before; But the Soul is also real,--it too is positive and direct; No reasoning, no proof has established it, Undeniable growth has established it.
6.
This is a poem for the sayers of words--these are hints of meanings, These are they that echo the tones of souls, and the phrases of souls; If they did not echo the phrases of souls, what were they then? If they had not reference to you in especial, what were they then? I swear I will never henceforth have to do with the faith that tells the best! I will have to do only with that faith that leaves the best untold.
7.
Say on, sayers! Delve! mould! pile the words of the earth! Work on--it is materials you bring, not breaths; Work on, age after age! nothing is to be lost! It may have to wait long, but it will certainly come in use; When the materials are all prepared, the architects shall appear.
I swear to you the architects shall appear without fail! I announce them and lead them; I swear to you they will understand you and justify you; I swear to you the greatest among them shall be he who best knows you, and encloses all, and is faithful to all; I swear to you, he and the rest shall not forget you--they shall perceive that you are not an iota less than they; I swear to you, you shall be glorified in them.
_VOICES._
1.
Now I make a leaf of Voices--for I have found nothing mightier than they are, And I have found that no word spoken but is beautiful in its place.
2.
O what is it in me that makes me tremble so at voices? Surely, whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her I shall follow, As the water follows the moon, silently, with fluid steps anywhere around the globe.
All waits for the right voices; Where is the practised and perfect organ? Where is the developed Soul? For I see every word uttered thence has deeper, sweeter, new sounds, impossible on less terms.
I see brains and lips closed--tympans and temples unstruck, Until that comes which has the quality to strike and to unclose, Until that comes which has the quality to bring forth what lies slumbering, for ever ready, in all words.
_WHOSOEVER._
Whoever you are, I fear you are walking the walks of dreams, I fear those supposed realities are to melt from under your feet and hands; Even now, your features, joys, speech, house, trade, manners, troubles, follies, costume, crimes, dissipate away from you, Your true Soul and Body appear before me, They stand forth out of affairs-out of commerce, shops, law, science, work, farms, clothes, the house, medicine, print, buying, selling, eating, drinking, suffering, dying.
Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem; I whisper with my lips close to your ear, I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you.
Oh! I have been dilatory and dumb; I should have made my way straight to you long ago; I should have blabbed nothing but you, I should have chanted nothing but you.
I will leave all, and come and make the hymns of you; None have understood you, but I understand you; None have done justice to you--you have not done justice to yourself; None but have found you imperfect--I only find no imperfection in you; None but would subordinate you--I only am he who will never consent to subordinate you; I only am he who places over you no master, owner, better, God, beyond what waits intrinsically in yourself.
Painters have painted their swarming groups, and the centre figure of all, From the head of the centre figure spreading a nimbus of gold-coloured light; But I paint myriads of heads, but paint no head without its nimbus of gold- coloured light; From my hand, from the brain of every man and woman, it streams, effulgently flowing for ever.
O I could sing such grandeurs and glories about you! You have not known what you are--you have slumbered upon yourself all your life; Your eyelids have been the same as closed most of the time; What you have done returns already in mockeries; Your thrift, knowledge, prayers, if they do not return in mockeries, what is their return?
The mockeries are not you; Underneath them, and within them, I see you lurk; I pursue you where none else has pursued you; Silence, the desk, the flippant expression, the night, the accustomed routine, if these conceal you from others, or from yourself, they do not conceal you from me; The shaved face, the unsteady eye, the impure complexion, if these baulk others, they do not baulk me. The pert apparel, the deformed attitude, drunkenness, greed, premature death, all these I part aside.
There is no endowment in man or woman that is not tallied in you; There is no virtue, no beauty, in man or woman, but as good is in you; No pluck, no endurance in others, but as good is in you; No pleasure waiting for others, but an equal pleasure waits for you. As for me, I give nothing to any one, except I give the like carefully to you; I sing the songs of the glory of none, not God, sooner than I sing the songs of the glory of you.
Whoever you are! claim your own at any hazard! These shows of the east and west are tame compared to you; These immense meadows--these interminable rivers--you are immense and interminable as they; These furies, elements, storms, motions of Nature, throes of apparent dissolution--you are he or she who is master or mistress over them, Master or mistress in your own right over Nature, elements, pain, passion, dissolution.
The hopples fall from your ankles--you find an unfailing sufficiency; Old or young, male or female, rude, low, rejected by the rest, whatever you are promulgates itself; Through birth, life, death, burial, the means are provided, nothing is scanted; Through angers, losses, ambition, ignorance, ennui, what you are picks its way.
_BEGINNERS._
How they are provided for upon the earth, appearing at intervals; How dear and dreadful they are to the earth; How they inure to themselves as much as to any--What a paradox appears their age; How people respond to them, yet know them not; How there is something relentless in their fate, all times; How all times mischoose the objects of their adulation and reward, And how the same inexorable price must still be paid for the same great purchase.
_TO A PUPIL._
1.
Is reform needed? Is it through you? The greater the reform needed, the greater the PERSONALITY you need to accomplish it.
You! do you not see how it would serve to have eyes, blood, complexion, clean and sweet? Do you not see how it would serve to have such a Body and Soul that, when you enter the crowd, an atmosphere of desire and command enters with you, and every one is impressed with your personality?
2.
O the magnet! the flesh over and over! Go, dear friend! if need be, give up all else, and commence to-day to inure yourself to pluck, reality, self-esteem, definiteness, elevatedness; Rest not, till you rivet and publish yourself of your own personality.
LINKS.
1.
Think of the Soul; I swear to you that body of yours gives proportions to your Soul somehow to live in other spheres; I do not know how, but I know it is so.
2.
Think of loving and being loved; I swear to you, whoever you are, you can interfuse yourself with such things that everybody that sees you shall look longingly upon you.
3.
Think of the past; I warn you that, in a little while, others will find their past in you and your times.
The race is never separated--nor man nor woman escapes; All is inextricable--things, spirits, nature, nations, you too--from precedents you come.
Recall the ever-welcome defiers (the mothers precede them); Recall the sages, poets, saviours, inventors, lawgivers, of the earth; Recall Christ, brother of rejected persons--brother of slaves, felons, idiots, and of insane and diseased persons.
4.
Think of the time when you was not yet born; Think of times you stood at the side of the dying; Think of the time when your own body will be dying.
Think of spiritual results: Sure as the earth swims through the heavens, does every one of its objects pass into spiritual results.
Think of manhood, and you to be a man; Do you count manhood, and the sweet of manhood, nothing?
Think of womanhood, and you to be a woman; The creation is womanhood; Have I not said that womanhood involves all? Have I not told how the universe has nothing better than the best womanhood?
_THE WATERS._
The world below the brine. Forests at the bottom of the sea--the branches and leaves, Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds--the thick tangle, the openings, and the pink turf, Different colours, pale grey and green, purple, white, and gold--the play of light through the water, Dumb swimmers there among the rocks--coral, gluten, grass, rushes--and the aliment of the swimmers, Sluggish existences grazing there, suspended, or slowly crawling close to the bottom: The sperm-whale at the surface, blowing air and spray, or disporting with his flukes, The leaden-eyed shark, the walrus, the turtle, the hairy sea-leopard, and the sting-ray. Passions there, wars, pursuits, tribes--sight in those ocean-depths-- breathing that thick breathing air, as so many do. The change thence to the sight here, and to the subtle air breathed by beings like us, who walk this sphere: The change onward from ours to that of beings who walk other spheres.
_TO THE STATES._
TO IDENTIFY THE SIXTEENTH, SEVENTEENTH, OR EIGHTEENTH PRESIDENTIAD.[1]
Why reclining, interrogating? Why myself and all drowsing? What deepening twilight! Scum floating atop of the waters! Who are they, as bats and night-dogs, askant in the Capitol? What a filthy Presidentiad! (O South, your torrid suns! O North, your Arctic freezings!) Are those really Congressmen? Are those the great Judges? Is that the President? Then I will sleep a while yet--for I see that these States sleep, for reasons. With gathering murk--with muttering thunder and lambent shoots, we all duly awake, South, North, East, West, inland and seaboard, we will surely awake.
[Footnote 1: These were the three Presidentships of Polk; of Taylor, succeeded by Fillmore; and of Pierce;--1845 to 1857.]
_TEARS._
Tears! tears! tears! In the night, in solitude, tears; On the white shore dripping, dripping, sucked in by the sand; Tears--not a star shining--all dark and desolate; Moist tears from the eyes of a muffled head: --O who is that ghost?--that form in the dark, with tears? What shapeless lump is that, bent, crouched there on the sand? Streaming tears--sobbing tears--throes, choked with wild cries; O storm, embodied, rising, careering, with swift steps along the beach; O wild and dismal night-storm, with wind! O belching and desperate! O shade, so sedate and decorous by day, with calm countenance and regulated pace; But away, at night, as you fly, none looking--O then the unloosened ocean Of tears! tears! tears!
_A SHIP._
1.
Aboard, at the ship's helm, A young steersman, steering with care.
A bell through fog on a sea-coast dolefully ringing, An ocean-bell--O a warning bell, rocked by the waves.
O you give good notice indeed, you bell by the sea-reefs ringing, Ringing, ringing, to warn the ship from its wreck-place. For, as on the alert, O steersman, you mind the bell's admonition, The bows turn,--the freighted ship, tacking, speeds away under her grey sails; The beautiful and noble ship, with all her precious wealth, speeds away gaily and safe.
2.
But O the ship, the immortal ship! O ship aboard the ship! O ship of the body--ship of the soul--voyaging, voyaging, voyaging.
_GREATNESS._
1.
Great are the myths--I too delight in them; Great are Adam and Eve--I too look back and accept them; Great the risen and fallen nations, and their poets, women, sages, inventors, rulers, warriors, and priests.
Great is Liberty! great is Equality! I am their follower; Helmsmen of nations, choose your craft! where you sail, I sail, I weather it out with you, or sink with you.
Great is Youth--equally great is Old Age--great are the Day and Night; Great is Wealth--great is Poverty--great is Expression--great is Silence.
2.
Youth, large, lusty, loving--Youth, full of grace, force, fascination! Do you know that Old Age may come after you, with equal grace, force, fascination?
Day, full-blown and splendid--Day of the immense sun, action, ambition, laughter, The Night follows close, with millions of suns, and sleep, and restoring darkness.
Wealth, with the flush hand, fine clothes, hospitality; But then the soul's wealth, which is candour, knowledge, pride, enfolding love; Who goes for men and women showing Poverty richer than wealth?
Expression of speech! in what is written or said, forget not that Silence is also expressive; That anguish as hot as the hottest, and contempt as cold as the coldest, may be without words.
3.
Great is the Earth, and the way it became what it is: Do you imagine it has stopped at this? the increase abandoned? Understand then that it goes as far onward from this as this is from the times when it lay in covering waters and gases, before man had appeared.
4.
Great is the quality of Truth in man; The quality of truth in man supports itself through all changes; It is inevitably in the man--he and it are in love, and never leave each other.
The truth in man is no dictum, it is vital as eyesight; If there be any Soul, there is truth--if there be man or woman, there is truth--if there be physical or moral, there is truth; If there be equilibrium or volition, there is truth--if there be things at all upon the earth, there is truth.
O truth of the earth! O truth of things! I am determined to press my way toward you; Sound your voice! I scale mountains, or dive in the sea, after you.
5.
Great is Language--it is the mightiest of the sciences, It is the fulness, colour, form, diversity of the earth, and of men and women, and of all qualities and processes; It is greater than wealth, it is greater than buildings, ships, religions, paintings, music.
Great is the English speech--what speech is so great as the English? Great is the English brood--what brood has so vast a destiny as the English? It is the mother of the brood that must rule the earth with the new rule; The new rule shall rule as the Soul rules, and as the love, justice, equality in the Soul rule.
6.
Great is Law--great are the old few landmarks of the law, They are the same in all times, and shall not be disturbed.
Great is Justice! Justice is not settled by legislators and laws--it is in the Soul; It cannot be varied by statutes, any more than love, pride, the attraction of gravity, can; It is immutable--it does not depend on majorities--majorities or what not come at last before the same passionless and exact tribunal.
For justice are the grand natural lawyers, and perfect judges--it is in their souls; It is well assorted--they have not studied for nothing--the great includes the less; They rule on the highest grounds--they oversee all eras, states, administrations.
The perfect judge fears nothing--he could go front to front before God; Before the perfect judge all shall stand back--life and death shall stand back--heaven and hell shall stand back.
7.
Great is Life, real and mystical, wherever and whoever; Great is Death--sure as Life holds all parts together, Death holds all parts together.
Has Life much purport?--Ah! Death has the greatest purport.
_THE POET._
1.
Now list to my morning's romanza; To the cities and farms I sing, as they spread in the sunshine before me.
2.
A young man came to me bearing a message from his brother; How should the young man know the whether and when of his brother? Tell him to send me the signs.
And I stood before the young man face to face, and took his right hand in my left hand, and his left hand in my right hand, And I answered for his brother, and for men, and I answered for THE POET, and sent these signs.
Him all wait for--him all yield up to--his word is decisive and final, Him they accept, in him lave, in him perceive themselves, as amid light, Him they immerse, and he immerses them.
Beautiful women, the haughtiest nations, laws, the landscape, people, animals, The profound earth and its attributes, and the unquiet ocean (so tell I my morning's romanza), All enjoyments and properties, and money, and whatever money will buy, The best farms--others toiling and planting, and he unavoidably reaps, The noblest and costliest cities--others grading and building, and he domiciles there, Nothing for any one but what is for him--near and far are for him,--the ships in the offing, The perpetual shows and marches on land, are for him, if they are for anybody.