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Pleasantly and well-suited I walk,
Whither I walk I cannot define, but I know it is good,
The whole universe indicates that it is good,
The past and the present indicate that it is good.

How beautiful and perfect are the animals! How perfect is my soul!
How perfect the earth, and the minutest thing upon it!
What is called good is perfect, and what is called sin is just as perfect;

The vegetables and minerals are all perfect…and the imponderable fluids are perfect;
Slowly and surely they have passed on to this, and slowly and surely they will yet pass on.

Oh my soul! if I realize you I have satisfaction,
Animals and vegetables! if I realize you I have satisfaction,
Laws of earth and air! if I realize you I have satisfaction.

I cannot define my satisfaction…yet it is so,
I cannot define my life…yet it is so.

I swear I see now that every thing has an eternal soul!
The trees have, rooted in the ground…the weeds of the sea have…the animals.

I swear I think there is nothing but immortality!
That the exquisite scheme is for it, and the nebulous float is for it, and the cohering is for it,
And all preparation is for it…and identity is for it…and life and death are for it.

—-Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855)

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Reading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.