His utter trust in things as they are seemed
a living embodiment of that sublime line in "Waiting"--
"I stand amid the Eternal ways";
and, thus standing, he is content to let the powers that be have
their way with him.
"To all these mysteries I fall back upon the last words I heard
Whitman say, shortly before the end--commonplace words, but they
sum it up: 'It's all right, John, it's all right'; but Whitman
had the active, sustaining faith in immortality--
'I laugh at what you call dissolution,
And I know the amplitude of time.'"
As the afternoon wanes, Mr. Burroughs hangs the kettle on the
crane, broils the chops, and with a little help from one of the
guests, soon has supper on the table, a discussion of Bergson's
philosophy suffering only occasional interruptions; such as, "Where
/have/ those women [summer occupants of Slabsides] put my holder?"
or, "See if there isn't some salt in the cupboard."
"There! I forgot to bring up eggs for breakfast, but here are other
things," he mutters as he rummages in his market-basket. "That
memory of mine is pretty tricky; sometimes I can't remember things
any better than I can find them when they are right under my nose.
I've just found a line from Emerson that I've been hunting for two
days--'The worm striving to be man.
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