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23 — Poem of Remembrances for A Girl or A Boy of These States.

REMEMBER the organic compact of These          States!

Remember the pledge of the Old Thirteen thence-          forward to the rights, life, liberty, equality, of          man!

Remember what was promulged by the founders,          ratified by The States, signed in black and          white by the Commissioners, read by Wash-          ington at the head of the army!

Remember the purposes of the founders!—Re-          member Washington!

Remember the copious humanity streaming from          every direction toward America!

Remember the hospitality that belongs to nations          and men!—(Cursed be nation, woman, man,          without hospitality!)

Remember, government is to subserve individuals!

Not any, not the President, is to have one jot more          than you or me,

Not any habitan of America is to have one jot less          than you or me.

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Anticipate when the thirty or fifty millions are to          become the hundred, or two hundred, or five          hundred millions, of equal freemen and free-          women, amicably joined.

Recall ages—One age is but a part—ages are          but a part,

Recall the angers, bickerings, delusions, supersti-          tions of the idea of caste,

Recall the bloody cruelties and crimes.

Anticipate the best women!

I say an unnumbered new race of hardy and well-          defined women are to spread through all          These States,

I say a girl fit for These States must be free,          capable, dauntless, just the same as a boy.

Anticipate your own life—retract with merciless          power,

Shirk nothing—retract in time—Do you see those          errors, diseases, weaknesses, lies, thefts?

Do you see that lost character?—Do you see          decay, consumption, rum-drinking, dropsy,          fever, mortal cancer or inflammation?

Do you see death, and the approach of death?

Think of the soul!

I swear to you that body of yours gives proportions          to your soul somehow to live in other spheres,

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I do not know how, but I know it is so.

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!

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, law-          givers, of the earth,

Recall Christ, brother of rejected persons —          brother of slaves, felons, idiots, and of insane          and diseased persons.

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!

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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?

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