He is the answerer;
What can be answered he answers--and what cannot be answered, he shows how
it cannot be answered.
3.
A man is a summons and challenge;
(It is vain to skulk--Do you hear that mocking and laughter? Do you hear
the ironical echoes?)
Books, friendships, philosophers, priests, action, pleasure, pride, beat up
and down, seeking to give satisfaction;
He indicates the satisfaction, and indicates them that beat up and down
also.
Whichever the sex, whatever the season or place, he may go freshly and
gently and safely, by day or by night;
He has the pass-key of hearts--to him the response of the prying of hands
on the knobs.
His welcome is universal--the flow of beauty is not more welcome or
universal than he is;
The person he favours by day or sleeps with at night is blessed.
Every existence has its idiom--everything has an idiom and tongue;
He resolves all tongues into his own, and bestows it upon men, and any man
translates, and any man translates himself also;
One part does not counteract another part--he is the joiner--he sees how
they join.
He says indifferently and alike, "_How are you, friend_?" to the President
at his levee,
And he says, "_Good-day, my brother_!" to Cudge that hoes in the sugar-
field,
And both understand him, and know that his speech is right.
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