I Was Looking a Long While + 

I was looking a long while for Intentions, + 

For a clue to the history of the past for myself, and for these chants⁠—and now I have found it, + 

It is not in those paged fables in the libraries, (them I neither accept nor reject,) + 

It is no more in the legends than in all else, + 

It is in the present⁠—it is this earth to-day, + 

It is in Democracy⁠—(the purport and aim of all the past,) + 

It is the life of one man or one woman to-day⁠—the average man of to-day, + 

It is in languages, social customs, literatures, arts, + 

It is in the broad show of artificial things, ships, machinery, politics, creeds, modern improvements, and the interchange of nations, + 

All for the modern⁠—all for the average man of to-day. + 