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Leaves of Grass.
61

All architecture is what you do to it when you look upon it;
Did you think it was in the white or gray stone? or the lines of the arches and cornices?

All music is what awakens from you when you are reminded by the instruments,
It is not the violins and the cornets .... it is not the oboe nor the beating drums – nor the notes of the baritone singer singing his sweet romanza .... nor those of the men’s chorus, nor those of the women’s chorus,
It is nearer and farther than they.

Will the whole come back then?
Can each see the signs of the best by a look in the lookingglass? Is there nothing greater or more?
Does all sit there with you and here with me?

The old forever new things .... you foolish child! .... the closest simplest things – this moment with you,
Your person and every particle that relates to your person,
The pulses of your brain waiting their chance and encouragement at every deed or sight;
Anything you do in public by day, and anything you do in secret betweendays,
What is called right and what is called wrong .... what you behold or touch .... what causes your anger or wonder,
The anklechain of the slave, the bed of the bedhouse, the cards of the gambler, the plates of the forger;
What is seen or learned in the street, or intuitively learned,
What is learned in the public school – spelling, reading, writing and ciphering .... the blackboard and the teacher’s diagrams:
The panes of the windows and all that appears through them .... the going forth in the morning and the aimless spending of the day;
(What is it that you made money? what is it that you got what you wanted?)
The usual routine .... the workshop, factory, yard, office, store, or desk;
The jaunt of hunting or fishing, or the life of hunting or fishing,
Pasturelife, foddering, milking and herding, and all the personnel and usages;
The plum-orchard and apple-orchard .... gardening .. seedlings, cuttings, flowers and vines,
Grains and manures .. marl, clay, loam .. the subsoil plough .. the shovel and pick and rake and hoe .. irrigation and draining;
The currycomb .. the horse-cloth .. the halter and bridle and bits .. the very wisps of straw,
The barn and barn-yard .. the bins and mangers .. the mows and racks:
Manufactures .. commerce .. engineering .. the building of cities, and every trade carried on there .. and the implements of every trade,
The anvil and tongs and hammer .. the axe and wedge .. the square and mitre and jointer and smoothingplane;