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, saviors, inventors, lawgivers, of the
    earth;
Recall Christ, brother of rejected persons — brother of slaves,
    felons, idiots, and of insane and diseas'd persons.

Think of the time when you were 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?

1856

RESPONDEZ!

Let me bring this to a close — I pronounce openly for a new
    distribution of roles;
Let that which stood in front go behind! and let that which
    was behind advance to the front and speak;
Let murderers, bigots, fools, unclean persons, offer new
    propositions!
Let the old propositions be postponed!
Let faces and theories be turn'd inside out! let meanings be
    freely criminal, as well as results!
Let there be no suggestion above the suggestion of
    drudgery!
Let none be pointed toward his destination! (Say! do you
    know your destination?)
Let men and women be mock'd with bodies and mock'd with
    Souls!
Let the love that waits in them, wait! let it die, or pass still-
    born to other spheres!
Let the sympathy that waits in every man, wait! or let it also
    pass, a dwarf, to other spheres!
Let contradictions prevail! let one thing contradict another!
    and let one line of my poems contradict another!
Let the people sprawl with yearning, aimless hands! let their
    tongues be broken! let their eyes be discouraged! let
    none descend into their hearts with the fresh
    lusciousness of love!
(Stifled, O days! O lands! in every public and private
    corruption!
Smother'd in thievery, impotence, shamelessness, mountain-
    high;
Brazen effrontery, scheming, rolling like ocean's waves
    around and upon you, O my days! my lands!
For not even those thunderstorms, nor fiercest lightnings of
    the war, have purified the atmosphere;)
— Let the theory of America still be management, caste,
    comparison! (Say! what other theory would you?)
Let them that distrust birth and death still lead the rest! (Say!
    why shall they not lead you?)
Let the crust of hell be neared and trod on! let the days be
    darker than the nights! let slumber bring less slumber
    than waking time brings!

Let the world never appear to him or her for whom it was all
    made!
Let the heart of the young man still exile itself from the heart
    of the old man! and let the heart of the old man be exiled
    from that of the young man!
Let the sun and moon go! let scenery take the applause of
    the audience! let there be apathy under the stars!
Let freedom prove no man's inalienable right! every one who
    can tyrannize, let him tyrannize to his satisfaction!
Let none but infidels be countenanced!
Let the eminence of meanness, treachery, sarcasm, hate,
    greed, indecency, impotence, lust, be taken for granted
    above all! let writers, judges, governments, households,
    religions, philosophies, take such for granted above
    all!
Let the worst men beget children out