Towards democracy

28 Towards Democracy

Blessings and thanks for you, you wild waters eternally flowing: O come flowing, encroaching, over me, in my ears: I salute you who are pure and sweet (ah! what designs, what love, are hid within you !)—

i praise you for your faithfulness for ever.

XVIII

To descend, first ;

To feel downwards and downwards through this wretched maze of shams for the solid ground—to come close to the Earth itself and those that live in direct contact with It ;

To identify, to saturate yourself with these, their laws of being, their modes of life, their needs (the Earth’s also), thoughts, temptations and aspirations ;

This—is it not the eternal precept?—is the first thing: to dig downwards. Afterwards the young shoot will ascend—and ascending easily part aside the overlying rubbish.

These are not the times of canary birds—nor of trifling with art and philosophy and _ impertinent philanthropic schemes ; this 1s the time of grown Men and Women:

Of or among the people; always living close to the earth and the people, and creating what they create, out of them.

Young Men and Women, I—though not of myself alone—call you: the time is come. (Is not the sweet rain falling ?)