You may read in many languages, yet read nothing about it,
You may read the President's message and read nothing
     about it there,
Nothing in the reports from the State department or Treasury
     department, or in the daily papers or weekly papers,
Or in the census or revenue returns, prices current, or any
     accounts of stock.

The sun and stars that float in the open air,
The apple-shaped earth and we upon it, surely the drift of
     them is something grand,

I do not know what it is except that it is grand, and that
     it is happiness,
And that the enclosing purport of us here is not a speculation
     or bon-mot or reconnoissance,
And that it is not something which by luck may turn out well
     for us, and without luck must be a failure for us,
And not something which may yet be retracted in a certain
     contingency.

The light and shade, the curious sense of body and identity, the
     greed that with perfect complaisance devours all things,
The endless pride and outstretching of man, unspeakable joys
     and sorrows,
The wonder every one sees in every one else he sees, and the
     wonders that fill each minute of time forever,
What have you reckon'd them for, camerado?
Have you reckon'd them for your trade or farm-work? or for
     the profits of your store?
Or to achieve yourself a position? or to fill a gentleman's
     leisure, or a lady's leisure?

Have you reckon'd that the landscape took substance and form
     that it might be painted in a picture?
Or men and women that they might be written of, and songs
     sung?
Or the attraction of gravity, and the great laws and harmonious
     combinations and the fluids of the air, as subjects for the
     savans?
Or the brown land and the blue sea for maps and charts?
Or the stars to be put in constellations and named fancy names?
Or that the growth of seeds is for agricultural tables, or
     agriculture itself?

Old institutions, these arts, libraries, legends, collections,
     and the practice handed along in manufactures, will we rate
     them so high?
Will we rate our cash and business high? I have no objection,
I rate them as high as the highest — then a child born
     of a woman and man I rate beyond all rate.

We thought our Union grand, and our Constitution grand,
I do not say they are not grand and good, for they are,
I am this day just as much in love with them as you,
Then I am in love with You, and with all my fellows upon
     the earth.

We consider bibles and religions divine — I do not
     say they are not divine,
I say they have all grown out of you, and may grow out of you
     still,
It is not they who give the life, it is you who give the life,
Leaves are not more shed from the trees, or trees from the earth,
     than they are shed out of you.

The sum of all known reverence I add up in you whoever you are,
The President is there in the White House for you, it is not you
     who are here for him,
The Secretaries act in their bureaus for you, not you here for them,
The Congress convenes every Twelfth-month for you,
Laws, courts, the forming of States, the charters of cities, the going
     and coming of commerce and mails, are all for you.

List close my scholars dear,
Doctrines, politics and civilization exurge from you,
Sculpture and monuments and any thing inscribed anywhere are
     tallied in you,
The gist of histories and statistics as far back as the records
     reach is in you this hour, and myths and tales the same,
If you were not breathing and walking here, where would they
     all be?
The most renown'd poems would be ashes, orations and plays
     would be vacuums.

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?)