Page:Leaves of Grass (1855).djvu/100

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94
Leaves of Grass

But then the soul’s wealth – which is candor and knowledge and pride and enfolding love:
Who goes for men and women showing poverty richer than wealth?

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,
That the true adoration is likewise without words and without kneeling.

Great is the greatest nation .. the nation of clusters of equal nations.

Great is the earth, and the way it became what it is,
Do you imagine it is stopped at this? .... and the increase abandoned?
Understand then that it goes as far onward from this as this is from the times when it lay in covering waters and gases.

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.

The truth in man is no dictum .... it is vital as eyesight,
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.

O truth of the earth! O truth of things! I am determined to press the whole way toward you,
Sound your voice! I scale mountains or dive in the sea after you.

Great is language .... it is the mightiest of the sciences,
It is the fulness and color and form and 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 or ships or religions or paintings or music.

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 and justice and equality that are in the soul rule.

Great is the law .... Great are the old few landmarks of the law .... they are the same in all times and shall not be disturbed.