University of Virginia Library

1  MANHATTAN'S streets I saunter'd pondering,
On time, space, reality — on such as these, and abreast      with them, prudence.
2  After all, the last explanation remains to be made      about prudence,
Little and large alike drop quietly aside from the pru-     dence that suits immortality.
3  The Soul is of itself;
All verges to it — all has reference to what ensues;
All that a person does, says, thinks, is of consequence;
Not a move can a man or woman make, that affects      him or her in a day, month, any part of the di-     rect life-time, or the hour of death, but the      same affects him or her onward afterward      through the indirect life-time.
4  The indirect is just as much as the direct,
The spirit receives from the body just as much as it      gives to the body, if not more.
5  Not one word or deed — not venereal sore, discolor-     ation, privacy of the onanist, putridity of glut-     tons or rum-drinkers, peculation, cunning,      betrayal, murder, seduction, prostitution, but      has results beyond death, as really as before      death.
6  Charity and personal force are the only investments      worth anything.
7   No specification is necessary — all that a male or fe-     male does, that is vigorous, benevolent, clean,      is so much profit to him or her, in the unshak-     able order of the universe, and through the      whole scope of it forever.
8  Who has been wise, receives interest,
Savage, felon, President, judge, farmer, sailor, me-     chanic, literat, young, old, it is the same,
The interest will come round — all will come round.
9  Singly, wholly, to affect now, affected their time,      will forever affect, all of the past, and all of the      present, and all of the future,
All the brave actions of war and peace,
All help given to relatives, strangers, the poor, old,      sorrowful, young children, widows, the sick, and      to shunned persons,
All furtherance of fugitives, and of the escape of slaves,
All self-denial that stood steady and aloof on wrecks,      and saw others fill the seats of the boats,
All offering of substance or life for the good old cause,      or for a friend's sake, or opinion's sake,
All pains of enthusiasts, scoffed at by their neighbors,
All the limitless sweet love and precious suffering of      mothers,
All honest men baffled in strifes recorded or unre-     corded,
All the grandeur and good of ancient nations whose      fragments we inherit,
All the good of the hundreds of ancient nations un-     known to us by name, date, location,
All that was ever manfully begun, whether it suc-     ceeded or no,
All suggestions of the divine mind of man, or the      divinity of his mouth, or the shaping of his      great hands;
All that is well thought or said this day on any part      of the globe — or on any of the wandering stars,      or on any of the fix'd stars, by those there as      we are here,
All that is henceforth to be thought or done by you,      whoever you are, or by any one,
These inure, have inured, shall inure, to the identities      from which they sprang, or shall spring.
10  Did you guess anything lived only its moment?
The world does not so exist — no parts palpable or      impalpable so exist,
No consummation exists without being from some      long previous consummation — and that from      some other,
Without the farthest conceivable one coming a bit      nearer the beginning than any.
11  Whatever satisfies Souls is true;
Prudence entirely satisfies the craving and glut of      Souls;
Itself only finally satisfies the Soul;
The Soul has that measureless pride which revolts      from every lesson but its own.
12  Now I give you an inkling;
Now I breathe the word of the prudence that walks      abreast with time, space, reality,
That answers the pride which refuses every lesson but      its own.
13  What is prudence, is indivisible,
Declines to separate one part of life from every part,
Divides not the righteous from the unrighteous, or      the living from the dead,
Matches every thought or act by its correlative,
Knows no possible forgiveness or deputed atonement,
Knows that the young man who composedly peril'd      his life and lost it, has done exceedingly well      for himself, without doubt,
That he who never peril'd his life, but retains it to      old age in riches and ease, has probably      achiev'd nothing for himself worth mentioning;
Knows that only that person has really learn'd who      has learn'd to prefer results,
Who favors Body and Soul the same,
Who perceives the indirect assuredly following the      direct,
Who in his spirit in any emergency whatever neither      hurries or avoids death.