Bishop Hardbrooke monologue (Act 3) — The Americans

Very true. Where would this be, This beautiful thing that Colonel Egerton Has built with so much labor and so much taste? And out there in the world where we all dwell, Where all of us have places in the walls, Some working with their hands on farms, in mines; Some building; some at forges; at machines Weaving our garments; others more endowed Loaned to us from the higher planes of being, Men of the Over-Soul, inventors, dreamers, Planners of longer railroads, bigger mills, The great preparers for the finer souls That build the dome, the finishers of things, Prophets of God, musicians, artists, poets, As we've all seen how Colonel Egerton In his third story has his books and pictures-- Suppose a bitter wind of discontent Should shake the great walls of this social order, Set the first story men against the second, The second against the third, until the mass, Throwing their tools down on the world's great floor, Should clamor up the dome for pens and brushes, Shutting their eyes to the cold facts of life That we climb up Life's ladder by degrees--