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Chants Democratic and Native American 13

13.

1LAWS for Creations, For strong artists and leaders—for fresh broods of  
 teachers, and perfect literats for America,
For diverse savans, and coming musicians.
2There shall be no subject but it shall be treated with  
 reference to the ensemble of the world, and the  
 compact truth of the world—And no coward or  
 copyist shall be allowed;
There shall be no subject too pronounced—All works  
 shall illustrate the divine law of indirections;
There they stand—I see them already, each poised  
 and in its place,
Statements, models, censuses, poems, dictionaries,  
 biographies, essays, theories—How complete!  
 How relative and interfused! No one super- 
 sedes another;
They do not seem to me like the old specimens, 16*   [ begin page 186 ]ppp.01500.194.jpg They seem to me like Nature at last, (America has  
 given birth to them, and I have also;)
They seem to me at last as perfect as the animals,  
 and as the rocks and weeds—fitted to them,
Fitted to the sky, to float with floating clouds—to  
 rustle among the trees with rustling leaves,
To stretch with stretched and level waters, where  
 ships silently sail in the distance.
3What do you suppose Creation is? What do you suppose will satisfy the Soul, except to  
 walk free and own no superior?
What do you suppose I have intimated to you in a  
 hundred ways, but that man or woman is as good  
 as God?
And that there is no God any more divine than  
 Yourself?
And that that is what the oldest and newest myths  
 finally mean?
And that you or any one must approach Creations  
 through such laws?
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