The earth expanding right hand and left hand, The picture alive, every part in its best light, The music falling in where it is wanted, and stopping where it is not wanted, The cheerful voice of the public road--the gay fresh sentiment of the road. O highway I travel! O public road! Do you say to me, Do not leave me? Do you say, Venture not?--If you leave me you are lost? Do you say, I am already prepared--I am well beaten and undenied--adhere to me? O public road! I say back I am not afraid to leave you--yet I love you, You express me better than I can express myself, You shall be more to me than my poem. I think heroic deeds were all conceived in the open air, I think I could stop here myself and do miracles, I think whatever I meet on the road I shall like, and whoever beholds me shall like me, I think whoever I see must be happy. From this hour, freedom! From this hour I ordain myself loosed of limits and imaginary lines! Going where I list--my own master, total and absolute, Listening to others, considering well what they say, Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating. Gently but with undeniable will divesting myself of the holds that would hold me. I inhale great draughts of air, The east and the west are mine, and the north and the south are mine. I am larger than I thought! I did not know I held so much goodness! All seems beautiful to me, I can repeat over to men and women, You have done such good to me, I would do the same to you, I will recruit for myself and you as I go, I will scatter myself among men and women as I go, I will toss a new gladness and roughness among them, Whoever denies me it shall not trouble me, Whoever accepts me he or she shall be blessed and shall bless me. Now if a thousand perfect men were to appear, it would not amaze me, Now if a thousand beautiful forms of women appear'd, it would not astonish me. Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons, It is to grow in the open air, and eat and sleep with the earth. Here a great personal deed has room, (Such a deed seizes upon the hearts of the whole race of men, Its effusion of strength and will overwhelms laws and mocks all authority and all argument against it.)