THE OVERSOUL

          What is that Oversoul that Emerson
          Affirmed but what some scholars now call Mind?
          It is the Ultimate, the Cosmic One
          By which all of creation is designed.

          Although by some Mind is personified
          Poetically, hence less mysterious,
          A patron who is lovingly allied
          And eager to provide and foster us,

          A more abstract conception pleases those
          Who see the cosmos as a vast machine
          Which from organic principles arose
          Impersonal, implacable, unseen.

               I say we humans cannot be more whole
               Than that from which we spring—the Oversoul.

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