Says

by Walt Whitman · 1867
Published 01/07/1867

I SAY whatever tastes sweet to the most perfect person

      —That is finally right.


I SAY the human shape or face is so great, it must never be made ridiculous;

I say for ornaments nothing outré can be allowed,

And that anything is most beautiful without orna-mentornament,

And that exaggerations will be sternly revenged in your own physiology; and in other persons' phys-iologyphysiology also;

And I say that clean-shaped children can be jetted and conceiv'd only where natural forms prevail in public, and the human face and form are never caricatured;

And I say that genius need never more be turn'd to romances,

(For facts properly told, how mean appear all ro-mancesromances.)


I HAVE said many times that materials and the Soul are great, and that all depends on physique;

Now I reverse what I said, and affirm that all depends on the æsthetic, or intellectual,

And that criticism is great—and that refinement is greatest of all;

And I affirm now that the mind governs—and that all depends on the mind.


WITH one man or woman—(no matter which one—I

      even pick out the lowest,)

With him or her I now illustrate the whole law;

I say that every right, in politics or what-not, shall be eligible to that one man or woman, on the same terms as any.

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