How the ancient Dame must laugh as she
listens to the prattle of her children. "Is Marriage a Failure?"
"Is Life worth Living?" "The New Woman versus the Old." So,
perhaps, the waves of the Atlantic discuss vehemently whether they
shall flow east or west.
Motherhood is the law of the Universe. The whole duty of man is to
be a mother. We labour: to what end? the children--the woman in
the home, the man in the community. The nation takes thought for
its future: why? In a few years its statesmen, its soldiers, its
merchants, its toilers, will be gathered unto their fathers. Why
trouble we ourselves about the future? The country pours its blood
and treasure into the earth that the children may reap. Foolish
Jacques Bonhomie, his addled brain full of dreams, rushes with
bloody hands to give his blood for Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.
He will not live to see, except in vision, the new world he gives
his bones to build--even his spinning word-whipped head knows that.
But the children! they shall live sweeter lives. The peasant leaves
his fireside to die upon the battle-field. What is it to him, a
grain in the human sand, that Russia should conquer the East, that
Germany should be united, that the English flag should wave above
new lands? the heritage his fathers left him shall be greater for
his sons.
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