2.
O I know that those men and women were not for nothing, any more than we
are for nothing;
I know that they belong to the scheme of the world every bit as much as we
now belong to it, and as all will henceforth belong to it.
Afar they stand--yet near to me they stand,
Some with oval countenances, learned and calm,
Some naked and savage--Some like huge collections of insects,
Some in tents--herdsmen, patriarchs, tribes, horsemen,
Some prowling through woods--Some living peaceably on farms, labouring,
reaping, filling barns,
Some traversing paved avenues, amid temples, palaces, factories, libraries,
shows, courts, theatres, wonderful monuments.
Are those billions of men really gone?
Are those women of the old experience of the earth gone?
Do their lives, cities, arts, rest only with us?
Did they achieve nothing for good, for themselves?
3.
I believe, of all those billions of men and women that filled the unnamed
lands, every one exists this hour, here or elsewhere, invisible to
us, in exact proportion to what he or she grew from in life, and
out of what he or she did, felt, became, loved, sinned, in life.
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