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Hough, Emerson, 1857-1923

"The Way of a Man"

Without these society is not,
these two, a woman and a man.
So I would sit at night, nodding under the stars, and vaguely dreaming
of these matters, and things came to me sweetly, things unknown in our
ignorance and evil of mind, as we live in what we call civilization.
They would become clear underneath the stars; and then the dawn would
come, and she would come and sit by me, looking out over the Plains at
the shimmering pictures. "What do you see?" she would ask of me.
"I see the ruins of that dome known as the capitol of our nation," I
said to her, "where they make laws. See, it is in ruins, and what I see
beyond is better."
"Then what more do you see," she would ask.
"I see the ruins of tall buildings of brick and iron, prisons where
souls are racked, and deeds of evil are done, and iron sunk into human
hearts, and vice and crime, and oppression and wrong of life and love
are wrought. These are in ruins, and what I see beyond is better."
Humoring me, she would ask that I would tell her further what I saw.
"I see the ruins of tall spires, where the truth was offered by bold
assertion. I see the ruins of religion, corrupt because done for gain.


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