What aspirations, wishes, outvie thine and ours, O soul?

What dreams of the ideal? what plans of purity, perfection, strength?

What cheerful willingness, for others' sake, to give up all?

For others' sake to suffer all?

Reckoning ahead, O soul, when thou, the time achiev'd,

(The seas all cross'd, weather'd the capes, the voyage done,)

Surrounded, copest, frontest God, yieldest, the aim attain'd,

As, fill'd with friendship, love complete, the Elder Brother found,

The Younger melts in fondness in his arms.

Passage to more than India!

Are thy wings plumed indeed for such far flights? O Soul, voyagest thou indeed on voyages like these?

Disportest thou on waters such as these?

Soundest below the Sanscrit and the Vedas?
Then have thy bent unleash'd.

Passage to you, your shores, ye aged fierce enigmas!

Passage to you, to mastership of you, ye strangling problems!

You, strew'd with the wrecks of skeletons, that, living, never reach'd you.

Passage to more than India!

O secret of the earth and sky!

Of you, O waters of the sea! O winding creeks

and rivers!

Of you, O woods and fields! Of you, strong mountains of my land!

Of you, O prairies! Of you, gray rocks!

O morning red! O clouds! O rain and snows! O day and night, passage to you!

O sun and moon, and all you stars! Sirius and Jupiter!

Passage to you!

Passage-immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins!

Away, O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!

Cut the hawsers

sail!

haul out shake out every

Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?

Have we not grovell'd here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?

Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough?

Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only! Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;

For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,

And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

O my brave soul!

O farther, farther sail!

O daring joy, but safe! Are they not all the

seas of God?

O farther, farther, farther sail!

Walt Whitman

THE BOOK OF JOB

Ch. xxxviii

HEN the Lord answered Job out of the

Twhirlwind, and said:

Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?

Gird up now thy loins like a man;

For I will demand of thee and answer thou me.

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Declare, if thou hast understanding.

Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest?

Or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?
Or who laid the corner stone thereof;
When the morning stars sang together,

And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Or who shut up the sea with doors,

When it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb;

When I made the cloud the garment thereof,
And thick darkness a swaddling band for it,
And brake up for it my decreed place,
And set bars and doors,

And said, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;

And here shall thy proud waves be stayed?” Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days;

And caused the day-spring to know his place; That it might take hold of the ends of the

earth,

That the wicked might be shaken out of it? It is turned as clay to the seal;

And they stand as a garment:

And from the wicked their light is withholden, And the high arm shall be broken.

Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? Or hast thou walked in the search of the depth? Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? Or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of

death?

Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth?

Declare, if thou knowest it all

Where is the way where light dwelleth?
And as for darkness, where is the place thereof,
That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof,
And that thou shouldest know the paths to the
house thereof?

-Knowest thou it because thou wast then
born?

Or because the number of thy days is great?

Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow, Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, Which I have reserved against the time of trouble,

Against the day of battle and war?

By what way is the light parted,

Which scattereth the east wind upon the earth? Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters,

Or a way for the lightning of thunder;

To cause it to rain on the earth where no man

is ;

On the wilderness wherein there is no man;
To satisfy the desolate and waste ground;
And to cause the bud of the tender herb to
spring forth?

Hath the rain a father?

Or who hath begotten the drops of dew?

Out of whose womb came the ice?

And the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?

The waters are hid as with a stone,

And the face of the deep is frozen.

Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades,
Or loose the bands of Orion?

Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season?
Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven?
Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?
Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds,
That abundance of waters may cover thee?
Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go,
And say unto thee, Here we are?

Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? -
Or who hath given understanding to the heart?
Who can number the clouds in wisdom?

Or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
When the dust groweth into hardness,
And the clods cleave fast together?
Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion?
Or fill the appetite of the young lions,
When they couch in their dens,

And abide in the covert to lie in wait?
Who provideth for the raven his food,
When his young ones cry unto God,
And wander for lack of meat?

I

THE APOCRYPHA

Ecclesiasticus, ch. xlii, xliii

WILL make mention now of the works of the Lord,

And will declare the things that I have seen: In the words of the Lord are his works.