I know that they belong to the scheme of the world
every bit as much as we now belong to it, and as
all will henceforth belong to it.
3.Afar they stand—yet near to me they stand,
Some with oval countenances, learned and calm,
Some naked and savage—Some like huge collections
of insects,
Some in tents—herdsmen, patriarchs, tribes, horsemen,
Some prowling through woods—Some living peaceably
on farms, laboring, reaping, filling barns,
Some traversing paved avenues, amid temples, palaces,
factories, libraries, shows, courts, theatres,
wonderful monuments.
4.Are those billions of men really gone?
Are those women of the old experience of the earth
gone?
Do their lives, cities, arts, rest only with us?
Did they achieve nothing for good, for themselves?
5.I believe of all those billions of men and women that
filled the unnamed lands, every one exists this hour,
here or elsewhere, invisible to us, in exact
proportion to what he or she grew from in life,
and out of what he or she did, felt, became, loved,
sinned, in life.
6.I believe that was not the end of those nations, or any
person of them, any more than this shall be the
end of my nation, or of me;
35*
