| And
nothing endures but personal qualities.
What do you think endures?
Do you think a great city endures?
Or a teeming manufacturing state? or a prepared constitution?
or the best built steamships?
Or hotels of granite and iron? or any chef-d'oevres of engineering, forts,
armaments?
A great city is that which has the greatest men and women,
If it be a few ragged huts it is still the greatest city in the whole
world.
Where the city stands with the brawniest breed of orators and bards,
Where the city stands that is belov'd by these, and loves them in return
and understands them,
Where no monuments exist to heroes but in the common words and deeds,
Where thrift is in its place, and prejudice is in its place,
Where the men and women think lightly of the laws
Where children are taught to be laws to themselves, and to depend on
themselves,
Where equanimity is illustrated in affairs,
Where speculations on the soul are encouraged,
Where women walk in public processions in the streets the same as men;
Where the city of the faithfulest friends stands
Where the city of the cleanliness of the sexes stands,
Where the city of the healthiest fathers stands,
Where the city of the best-bodied mothers stands,
There the great city stands.
How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!
How the floridness of the materials of cities shrivels before a man's or
woman's look!
All waits or goes by default till a strong being appears;
A strong being is the proof of the race and of the ability of the
universe,
When he or she appears materials are overaw'd,
The dispute on the soul stops,
The old customs and phrases are confronted, turn'd back, or laid away.
Her shape arises,
She less guarded than ever, yet more guarded than ever,
The gross and soil'd she moves among do not make her gross and soil'd,
She knows the thoughts as she passes, nothing is conceal'd from her,
She is none the less considerate or friendly therefor,
She is the best belov'd, it is without exception, she has no reason to
fear and she does not fear,
Oaths, quarrels, hiccupp'd songs, smutty expressions, are idle to her as
she passes,
She is silent, she is possess'd of herself, they do not offend her,
She receives them as the laws of Nature receive them, she is strong,
She too is a law of Nature - there is no law stronger than she is....
Walt Whitman, 1819-1889,
Leaves of Grass, from Calamus published 1860
Music is Gymnopedie no. 1,
Erik Satie, 1866-1925.
Played by Pascal Rogé. Recording published by Decca, 1984
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