Towards democracy

Towards Democracy 13

the passionate deep shuddering words run along the ground: who shall contain, who shall understand them ?

Surely, surely, age after age out of the ground itself arising, from the chinks of the lips of the clods and from between the blades of grass, up with the tall- growing wheat surely ascending

Deep-muttered, vast, inaudible—they come—the strange new words, through the frame of the great Mother and through the frames of her children trembling :

Freedom !

And among the far nations there is a stir like the stir of the leaves of a forest.

Joy, Joy arising on Earth!

And lo! the banners lifted from point to point, and the spirits of the ancient races looking abroad —the divinely beautiful daughters of God calling to their children.

The nations of the old and of the new worlds!

See, what hastening of feet, what throngs, what rustling movement !

Lo! the divine East from ages and ages back intact her priceless jewel of thought—the germ of Democracy bringing down! [Gentle and venerable India well pleased now at last to hear fulfilled the words of her ancient sages. |

Lo, Arabia! peerless in dignity, eternal in manhood of love and war—pivoting like a centre the races of mankind ; Siberia, the aged mother, breaking forth uncontrollable into exultant shouting, from Kokan to farthest Kamschatka and the moss-morasses of the Arctic Sea!

See how they arise and call to each other! Norway