<h2><SPAN name="page87"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>THE WELL-BORN</h2>
<p class="poetry"><span class="smcap">So</span> many
people—people—in the world;<br/>
So few great souls, love ordered, well begun,<br/>
In answer to the fertile mother need!<br/>
So few who seem<br/>
The image of the Maker’s mortal dream;<br/>
So many born of mere propinquity—<br/>
Of lustful habit, or of accident.<br/>
Their mothers felt<br/>
No mighty, all-compelling wish to see<br/>
Their bosoms garden-places<br/>
Abloom with flower faces;<br/>
No tidal wave swept o’er them with its flood;<br/>
No thrill of flesh or heart; no leap of blood;<br/>
No glowing fire, flaming to white desire<br/>
For mating and for motherhood:<br/>
Yet they bore children.<br/>
God! how mankind misuses Thy command,<br/>
To populate the earth!<br/>
How low is brought high birth!<br/>
<SPAN name="page88"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>How low
the woman; when, inert as spawn<br/>
Left on the sands to fertilise,<br/>
She is the means through which the race goes on!<br/>
Not so the first intent.<br/>
Birth, as the Supreme Mind conceived it, meant<br/>
The clear imperious call of mate to mate<br/>
And the clear answer. Only thus and then<br/>
Are fine, well-ordered, and potential lives<br/>
Brought into being. Not by Church or State<br/>
Can birth be made legitimate,<br/>
Unless<br/>
Love in its fulness bless.<br/>
Creation so ordains its lofty laws<br/>
That man, while greater in all other things,<br/>
Is lesser in the generative cause.<br/>
The father may be merely man, the male;<br/>
Yet more than female must the mother be.<br/>
The woman who would fashion<br/>
Souls, for the use of earth and angels meet,<br/>
Must entertain a high and holy passion.<br/>
Not rank, or wealth, or influence of kings<br/>
Can give a soul its dower<br/>
Of majesty and power,<br/>
Unless the mother brings<br/>
Great love to that great hour.</p>
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