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.
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.
1855
POEM OF REMEMBRANCE FOR A GIRL OR A BOY OF THESE STATES
You just maturing youth! You male or female!Remember the organic compact of These States,
Remember the pledge of the Old Thirteen thenceforward 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, and read by Washington at the head of the
army,
Remember the purposes of the founders, — Remember
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.
Anticipate when the thirty or fifty millions, are to become the
hundred or two hundred millions, of equal
freemen and
freewomen, amicably joined.
Recall ages — One age is but a part — ages are but a part;
Recall the angers, bickerings, delusions,
superstitions, 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?
1856
THINK OF THE SOUL
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.
| Previous chapter/page | Back | Home | Email this | Search | Discuss | Bookmark | Next chapter/page |