民族比这些州早一万年，比这些州早许多万年;像我们这样的男男女女，长大了，走了人生的道路，又走了人生的道路;多么庞大的城市——多么井然有序的共和国——多么游牧部落和游牧民族;什么历史，统治者，英雄，也许超越了所有其他人;什么法律、习俗、财富、艺术、传统;什么样的婚姻——什么样的服装——什么样的生理和颅相学;他们对自由和奴役有什么看法?他们对死亡和灵魂有什么看法?有些人机智聪明——有些人美丽而富有诗意——有些人粗野而不成熟;一个痕迹，一个记录都没有留下——然而一切都留下了。啊，我知道那些男男女女并非一无是处，正如我们并非一无是处一样; 10 I know that they belong to the scheme of the world every bit as much as we now belong to it, and as all will henceforth belong to it. Afar they stand--yet near to me they stand, Some with oval countenances, learn'd and calm, Some naked and savage--Some like huge collections of insects, Some in tents--herdsmen, patriarchs, tribes, horsemen, Some prowling through woods--Some living peaceably on farms, laboring, reaping, filling barns, Some traversing paved avenues, amid temples, palaces, factories, libraries, shows, courts, theatres, wonderful monuments. Are those billions of men really gone? Are those women of the old experience of the earth gone? Do their lives, cities, arts, rest only with us? 20 Did they achieve nothing for good, for themselves? I believe of all those billions of men and women that fill'd the unnamed lands, every one exists this hour, here or elsewhere, invisible to us, in exact proportion to what he or she grew from in life, and out of what he or she did, felt, became, loved, sinn'd, in life. I believe that was not the end of those nations, or any person of them, any more than this shall be the end of my nation, or of me; Of their languages, governments, marriage, literature, products, games, wars, manners, crimes, prisons, slaves, heroes, poets, I suspect their results curiously await in the yet unseen world--counterparts of what accrued to them in the seen world. I suspect I shall meet them there, I suspect I shall there find each old particular of those unnamed lands.