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.