University of Virginia Library

OF Public Opinion;
Of a calm and cool fiat, sooner or later, (How im-     passive! How certain and final!)
Of the President with pale face asking secretly to      himself, What will the people say at last?
Of the frivolous Judge — Of the corrupt Congressman,      Governor, Mayor — Of such as these, standing      helpless and exposed;
Of the mumbling and screaming priest — (soon, soon      deserted;)
Of the lessening, year by year, of venerableness, and      of the dicta of officers, statutes, pulpits, schools;
Of the rising forever taller and stronger and broader,      of the intuitions of men and women, and of      self-esteem, and of personality;
— Of the New World — Of the Democracies, resplendent,      en-masse;
Of the conformity of politics, armies, navies, to them      and to me,
Of the shining sun by them — Of the inherent light,      greater than the rest,
Of the envelopment of all by them, and of the effusion      of all from them.