Page:The Souls of Black Folk (2nd ed).djvu/104



Why, if the Soul can fling the Dust aside,

And naked on the Air of Heaven ride,

Were 't not a Shame—were 't not a Shame for him

In this clay carcase crippled to abide?

.

ROM the shimmering swirl of waters where many, many thoughts ago the slave-ship first saw the square tower of Jamestown, have flowed down to our day three streams of thinking: one swollen from the larger world here and over-seas, saying, the multiplying of human wants in culture-lands calls for the world-wide coöperation of men in satisfying them. Hence arises a new human unity, pulling the ends of earth nearer, and all men, black, yellow, and white. The larger humanity strives to feel in this contact of living Nations and sleeping hordes a thrill of new life in the world, crying, "If the contact of Life and Sleep be Death, shame on