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View Page 291
GREAT ARE THE MYTHS.
| 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. |
|
2
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. |
|
3
Great is Youth—equally great is Old Age—great
are the Day and night; |
|
Great is Wealth—great is Poverty—great is Expres-
sion—great is Silence. |
|
4
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? |
|
5
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. |
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|
6
Wealth, with the flush hand, fine clothes, hospi-
tality; |
|
But then the Soul's wealth, which is candor, knowl-
edge, pride, enfolding love; |
|
(Who goes for men and women showing Poverty
richer than wealth?) |
|
7
(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.) |
|
8
Great is the Earth, and the way it became what it
is; |
|
Do you imagine it has stopt at this? the increase
abandon'd? |
|
Understand then that it goes as far onward from this,
as this is from the times when it lay in cover- ing waters and gases, before man had appear'd. |
| 9 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. |
|
10
The truth in man is no dictum, it is vital as eye-
sight; |
|
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. |
|
11
O truth of the earth! O truth of things! I am de-
termin'd to press my way toward you; |
|
Sound your voice! I scale mountains, or dive in the
sea after you. |
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12
Great is Language—it is the mightiest of the sci-
ences, |
|
It is the fulness, color, 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. |
|
13
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. |
|
14
Great is law—great are the old few land-marks of
the law, |
|
They are the same in all times, and shall not be dis-
turb'd. |
| 15 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. |
|
16
For justice are the grand natural lawyers, and per-
fect judges—is it 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. |
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17
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. |
|
18
Great is Life, real and mystical, wherever and who-
ever; |
|
Great is Death—sure as life holds all parts together,
Death holds all parts together. |
|
19
Has Life much purport?—Ah, Death has the greatest
purport. |