Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/421

Rh 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, laboring, 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?

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.

I believe that was not the end of those nations, or any
 * person of them, any more than this shall be the
 * end of my nation, or of me;