This morning he had
an elation of his own; it touched everything with more
vivid reality. The familiar picture stirred a joy in him
in tune with his private happiness; its undernote came
to him with a pang as keen. The sense of kinship surged
in his heart; these were his people, this his lot as well
as theirs. For the first time he saw it in detachment.
Till now he had regarded it with the friendly eyes of a
participator who looked no further. Today he did look
further: the whole world invited his eyes, offering him
a great piece of luck to look through. The opportunity
was in his hand which, if he could seize and hold, would
lift and carry him on. He was as much aware of its
potential significance as anyone could be, and what leapt
in his veins till he could have laughed aloud was the
splendid conviction of resource. Already in the door of
the passage he had achieved, from that point he looked
at the scene before him with an impulse of loyalty and
devotion. A tenderness seized him for the farmers of Fox
County, a throb of enthusiasm for the idea they represented,
which had become for him suddenly moving and pictorial.
At that moment his country came subjectively into his
possession; great and helpless it came into his inheritance
as it comes into the inheritance of every man who can
take it, by deed of imagination and energy and love.
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