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Think of the Soul.

Part of the cluster LEAVES OF GRASS.

THINK OF THE SOUL.

1THINK of the Soul; I swear to you that body of yours gives proportions to  
 your Soul somehow to live in other spheres;
I do not know how, but I know it is so.
2Think of loving and being loved; I swear to you, whoever you are, you can interfuse your- 
 self with such things that everybody that sees  
 you shall look longingly upon you.
3Think of the past; I warn you that in a little while others will find their  
 past in you and your times.
4The race is never separated—nor man nor woman  
 escapes;
All is inextricable—things, spirits, Nature, nations, you  
 too—from precedents you come.
5Recall the ever-welcome defiers, (The mothers pre- 
 cede them;)
Recall the sages, poets, saviors, inventors, lawgivers, of  
 the earth;
Recall Christ, brother of rejected persons—brother of  
 slaves, felons, idiots, and of insane and diseas'd  
 persons.
6Think of the time when you were not yet born; Think of times you stood at the side of the dying; Think of the time when your own body will be dying. 7Think of spiritual results, Sure as the earth swims through the heavens, does every  
 one of its objects pass into spiritual results.
8Think of manhood, and you to be a man; Do you count manhood, and the sweet of manhood,  
 nothing?
9   [ begin page 258 ]ppp.00270.260.jpg Think of womanhood, and you to be a woman; The creation is womanhood; Have I not said that womanhood involves all? Have I not told how the universe has nothing better  
 than the best womanhood?

Part of the cluster LEAVES OF GRASS.

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