Not a day passes .. not a minute or second without an accouchement;

To think that we are now here and bear our part.

To think that you and I did not see feel think nor bear our part,

To think that the sun rose in the cast .... that men and women were flexible and real and alive .... that every thing was real and alive;

If the future is nothing they are just as surely nothing.

Is today nothing? Is the beginningless past nothing?

Have you feared the future would be nothing to you?

Have you guessed you yourself would not continue? Have you dreaded those earth-beetles?

To think of today .. and the ages continued henceforward.

To think of time .... to think through the retrospection,

I intend to reach them my hand and make as much of them as I do of men and women.

When warrantee deeds loafe in chairs opposite and are my friendly companions,

When the minted gold in the vault smiles like the nightwatchman’s daughter,

When a university course convinces like a slumbering woman and child convince,

When the sacred vessels or the bits of the eucharist, or the lath and plast, procreate as effectually as the young silversmiths or bakers, or the masons in their overalls,

When the pulpit descends and goes instead of the carver that carved the supporting desk,

When the script preaches instead of the preacher,

When the psalm sings instead of the singer,

And all else thus far known giving place to men and women.

Man in the first you see or touch .... always in your friend or brother or nighest neighbor .... Woman in your mother or lover or wife,

Happiness not in another place, but this place .. not for another hour, but this hour,

In folks nearest to you finding also the sweetest and strongest and lovingest,

In things best known to you finding the best or as good as the best,

Will you seek afar off? You surely come back at last,

But I say that none lead to greater or sadder or happier than those lead to.

I do not say leadings you thought great are not great,

I do not affirm what you see beyond is futile .... I do not advise you to stop,

In them your themes and hints and provokers .. if not, the whole earth has no themes or hints or provokers, and never had.

In them, not yourself .... you and your soul enclose all things, regardless of estimation,

In them the heft of the heaviest .... in them far more than you estimated, and far less also,

The pay on Saturday night .... the going home, and the purchases;

The house you live in .... the rent .... the other tenants .... the deposite in the savings-bank .... the trade at the grocery,

Your room and bedroom .... your piano-forte .... the stove and cookpans,

The cotton and woolen and linen you wear .... the money you make and spend;

The column of wants in the one-cent paper .. the news by telegraph .... the amusements and operas and shows:

The milliner’s ribbons .. the dressmaker’s patterns .... the tea-table .. the homemade sweetmeats:

The bread and cakes in the bakery .... the white and red pork in the pork-store;

The shopwindows .... the coffins in the sexton’s wareroom .... the fruit on the fruitstand .... the beef on the butcher’s stall,

The blows of the fighting-man .. the upper cut and one-two-three;

The bearhunt or coonhunt .... the bonfire of shavings in the open lot in the city .. the crowd of children watching;

The snowplough and two engines pushing it .... the ride in the express train of only one car .... the swift go through a howling storm:

Stavemachines and plainingmachines .... the cart of the carman .. the omnibus .. the ponderous dray;

The walkingbeam of the steam-engine .. the throttle and governors, and the up and down rods,

Leatherdressing, coachmaking, boilermaking, ropetwisting, distilling, signpainting, limeburning, coopering, cottonpicking,

The designs for wallpapers or oilcloths or carpets .... the fancies for goods for women .... the bookbinder’s stamps;

Billiards and tenpins .... the ladders and hanging ropes of the gymnasium, and the manly exercises;

The awl and kneestrap .. the pint measure and quart measure .. the counter and stool .. the writingpen of quill or metal;

The veneer and gluepot .. the confectioner’s ornaments .. the decanter and glasses .. the shears and flatiron;

Goods of guttapercha or papiermache .... colors and brushes .... glaziers’ implements,

The implements for daguerreotyping .... the tools of the rigger or grappler or sailmaker or blockmaker,