 | Stones from The Quarry |  |
WOMEN'S RIGHTS AGAIN.
Ye foolish women, prating of your rights!
Rights are but Duties! As on coinèd gold
Image or superscription we behold
On either face, which “Sterling” thereon writes,
True interchangeable value “Right” unites
With “Duty:” 'tis God's coinage; as of old
So now and ever, it, with face twofold
But single value, writ large for all sights
His superscription shows. Rise up, ye vain,
Ye foolish daughters! on Life's threshold stand
As angels, and your Little ones so train;
Like the pure lilies let their souls expand
In their own innocence, and yours, nor stain
Their garments with thought, look, word, deed, or touch of hand!
Rights are but Duties! As on coinèd gold
Image or superscription we behold
On either face, which “Sterling” thereon writes,
True interchangeable value “Right” unites
With “Duty:” 'tis God's coinage; as of old
So now and ever, it, with face twofold
But single value, writ large for all sights
His superscription shows. Rise up, ye vain,
Ye foolish daughters! on Life's threshold stand
As angels, and your Little ones so train;
Like the pure lilies let their souls expand
In their own innocence, and yours, nor stain
Their garments with thought, look, word, deed, or touch of hand!
Walk not so daintily, nor lift the head
So high, but rather take heed to your feet,
And to their ways. Not ointments make you sweet,
But good deeds, which, in heaven regist'red,
Shall on your lives and memories sweetness shed,
Make sacred Woman's name; as that where meet
In Life's true focus all its rays complete,
Pure, perfect light; all other borrowèd,
Derivative of that. On th' infant mind
Stamp the true image of Humanity,
While yet the wax is soft and well-inclined.
Let “Mother” be a talisman, whereby
They may, sublimely deaf, divinely blind
To evil, know it not, or hate and fly.
So high, but rather take heed to your feet,
And to their ways. Not ointments make you sweet,
But good deeds, which, in heaven regist'red,
Shall on your lives and memories sweetness shed,
Make sacred Woman's name; as that where meet
In Life's true focus all its rays complete,
Pure, perfect light; all other borrowèd,
Derivative of that. On th' infant mind
Stamp the true image of Humanity,
While yet the wax is soft and well-inclined.
Let “Mother” be a talisman, whereby
They may, sublimely deaf, divinely blind
To evil, know it not, or hate and fly.
38
O ye dear Innocents! whose heritage,
Not of mere life, but of the life of life,
Its very authors, who in mere blind strife
With Nature, Truth, and God Himself engage,
Your guides, your guardians, ere ye come of age,
Squander; not only rifling the poor hive
Of present sweets, whereon the bees should thrive,
But those should sweeten Life's each after-stage.
Supreme of follies, wickednesses! Yet
Ye prate of rights, and would the world set right.
Go, set it right! 'tis yours: your houses set—
Yourselves—in order; let in God's pure light,
Not false reflections, like a flaring gas-jet,
Distorting objects, making blear-eyed sight!
Not of mere life, but of the life of life,
Its very authors, who in mere blind strife
With Nature, Truth, and God Himself engage,
Your guides, your guardians, ere ye come of age,
Squander; not only rifling the poor hive
Of present sweets, whereon the bees should thrive,
But those should sweeten Life's each after-stage.
Supreme of follies, wickednesses! Yet
Ye prate of rights, and would the world set right.
Go, set it right! 'tis yours: your houses set—
Yourselves—in order; let in God's pure light,
Not false reflections, like a flaring gas-jet,
Distorting objects, making blear-eyed sight!
Is this the vineyard of their innocence?
Ye look for grapes, and wonder that it brings
Forth wild grapes, and is choked with all ill things!
Have ye well fenced it, gathered out from thence
The stumbling-blocks, the first stones of offence?
No! ye have left it open; the pure springs
Are left too for the unclean wallowings
Of the world's swine, who trample down each fence!
“Ye have not,” saith the Lord, “baptised to Me,
But unto Mammon, taking My name in vain;
Sin twofold, and twofold hypocrisie!
The Pagans offered beasts their gods to gain,
Your children ye, and slaves make souls born free;
Worst slaves! who from their good know not their bane!”
Ye look for grapes, and wonder that it brings
Forth wild grapes, and is choked with all ill things!
Have ye well fenced it, gathered out from thence
The stumbling-blocks, the first stones of offence?
No! ye have left it open; the pure springs
Are left too for the unclean wallowings
Of the world's swine, who trample down each fence!
“Ye have not,” saith the Lord, “baptised to Me,
But unto Mammon, taking My name in vain;
Sin twofold, and twofold hypocrisie!
The Pagans offered beasts their gods to gain,
Your children ye, and slaves make souls born free;
Worst slaves! who from their good know not their bane!”
Into your infant's tiny hand the clue
Of Life at once, ye wiser mothers, place;
It is a labyrinth and ill to trace,
All earthly guidance needs, and God's grace too.
Weave not a web of falsehood round their new
And trusting minds: errors they must retrace
With shame and pain, if they get after-grace;
And if not, wander as the lost sheep do.
Let all your words be truth, your looks, your deeds;
For words are things—their life soon acts the lie.
The sacredness of labour, which not feeds
And clothes alone, but clears the mental eye,
Teach early, with all that man's life most needs,
Love of all good; Truth, Peace, Humanity!
Of Life at once, ye wiser mothers, place;
It is a labyrinth and ill to trace,
All earthly guidance needs, and God's grace too.
Weave not a web of falsehood round their new
And trusting minds: errors they must retrace
With shame and pain, if they get after-grace;
And if not, wander as the lost sheep do.
Let all your words be truth, your looks, your deeds;
For words are things—their life soon acts the lie.
The sacredness of labour, which not feeds
And clothes alone, but clears the mental eye,
Teach early, with all that man's life most needs,
Love of all good; Truth, Peace, Humanity!
39
Keep order in yourself and in your house;
Those lesser lives, like small wheels in the great,
With motions and with speeds co-ordinate,
Their tiny revolutions will dispose,
Unconsciously, in harmony with those.
So in a watch the works, wheels, match and mate
To the end that it true time may indicate:
True image of a State each home thus shows.
Call in the bee to teach them industry;
Like Mercy, bless'd, in self and others, twice;
Balm of hurt minds, like sleep: sleep's best ally,
Not slothful down or poppies; bid them rise
With brisk Aurora, useful tasks to ply—
To serve well God and Man, their best “device.”
Those lesser lives, like small wheels in the great,
With motions and with speeds co-ordinate,
Their tiny revolutions will dispose,
Unconsciously, in harmony with those.
So in a watch the works, wheels, match and mate
To the end that it true time may indicate:
True image of a State each home thus shows.
Call in the bee to teach them industry;
Like Mercy, bless'd, in self and others, twice;
Balm of hurt minds, like sleep: sleep's best ally,
Not slothful down or poppies; bid them rise
With brisk Aurora, useful tasks to ply—
To serve well God and Man, their best “device.”
| Stones from The Quarry | |