Towards democracy

42 Towards Democracy

be without the mother-love in which they swim all the | while as in an ocean? ,

To be Yourself, to have measureless Trust ; to enjoy all, to possess nothing. :

That which you have, your skill, your strength, your knack of pleasant thoughts—they belong to all. It is a fact, and the others looking on you know it.

That which you have not, your scornful defects, your dumbnesses, your aches and pains and silent hours of suffering, to understand that you can give of them too, inexhaustible store—as the old brown earth gives out of her heart, to men; and she knows it, but they do not know it.

To walk along the path which has an equal good on either hand; to give the sign of equality ;

To entertain no possible fear or doubt about the upshot of things—to be Yourself, to have measureless Trust:

Perhaps that is best of all.

XXX

Curious how much—and the disentangling of self—_ > o

depends upon Ideals!

Whe is this, for instance, easy with open shirt, and | brown neck and face—the whites of his eyes just seen in | the sultry twilight—through the city garden swinging ?

The fountain plashes cool in its basin, and mixes its murmur with the sound of feet going to and fro upon graveled walks ;

The massed foliage above catches the evening light,