OF GREAT LONGING
"O my soul, I taught thee to say 'to-day,' as well as 'once' and 'long ago,' and to dance thy jig over all Here and There and Elsewhere.
O my soul, I redeemed thee from all corners ! I brushed down from thee dust, spiders, and twilight.
- O my soul, I washed the small shame and corner
virtue down from thee, and persuaded thee to stand naked before the eyes of the sun !
With the storm which is called 'spirit,' I blew over thine undulating sea. All clouds I blew away and throttled even the throttler called 'sin.'
O my soul, I gave thee the right to say Nay like the storm, and to say Yea as the open sky doth ! Still like light, now thou standest and walkest through denying storms.
O my soul, I gave thee back freedom over created and not created things ! And who knoweth, as thou dost, the lust of what is to come?
O my soul, I taught thee the despising that cometh not like the gnawing of worms, the great, loving de- spising that loveth most where it despiseth most.
O my soul, I taught thee thus to persuade, so that
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