if, then, to meanest mariners, and renegades and castaways, i shall hereafter ascribe high qualities, though dark; weave round them tragic graces; if even the most mournful, perchance the most abased, among them all, shall at times lift himself to the exalted mounts; if i shall touch that workman’s arm with some ethereal light; if i shall spread a rainbow over his disastrous set of sun; then against all mortal critics bear me out in it, thou just spirit of equality, which hast spread one royal mantle of humanity over all my kind! bear me out in it, thou great democratic god! who didst not refuse to the swart convict, bunyan, the pale, poetic pearl; thou who didst clothe with doubly hammered leaves of finest gold, the stumped and paupered arm of old cervantes; thou who didst pick up andrew jackson from the pebbles; who didst hurl him upon a war-horse; who didst thunder him higher than a throne! thou who, in all thy mighty, earthly marchings, ever cullest thy selectest champions from the kingly commons; bear me out in it, o god!