University of Virginia Library

1  THINK of the Soul;
I swear to you that body of yours gives proportions      to your Soul somehow to live in other spheres;
I do not know how, but I know it is so.
2  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.
3  Think of the past;
I warn you that in a little while, others will find their      past in you and your times.
4  The race is never separated — nor man nor woman      escapes;
All is inextricable — things, spirits, nature, nations,      you too — from precedents you come.
5  Recall the ever-welcome defiers, (The mothers pre-
     cede 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.
6  Think of the time when you was 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.
7   Think of spiritual results,
Sure as the earth swims through the heavens, does      every one of its objects pass into spiritual      results.
8  Think of manhood, and you to be a man;
Do you count manhood, and the sweet of manhood,      nothing?
9  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?