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168
Leaves of Grass.

Let freedom prove no man's inalienable right! Every
one who can tyrannize, let him tyrannize to his
satisfaction!
Let none but infidels be countenanced!
Let the eminence of meanness, treachery, sarcasm,
hate, greed, indecency, impotence, lust, be taken
for granted above all! Let writers, judges, governments,
households, religions, philosophies, take
such for granted above all!
Let the worst men beget children out of the worst
women!
Let priests still play at immortality!
Let Death be inaugurated!
Let nothing remain upon the earth except the ashes of
teachers, artists, moralists, lawyers, and learned
and polite persons!
Let him who is without my poems be assassinated!
Let the cow, the horse, the camel, the garden-bee—
Let the mud-fish, the lobster, the mussel, eel, the
sting-ray, and the grunting pig-fish—Let these,
and the like of these, be put on a perfect equality
with man and woman!
Let churches accommodate serpents, vermin, and the
corpses of those who have died of the most filthy
of diseases!
Let marriage slip down among fools, and be for none
but fools!
Let men among themselves talk and think obscenely
of women! and let women among themselves
talk and think obscenely of men!
Let every man doubt every woman! and let every
woman trick every man!