XLI.

By her the progress of our future kind,

Their stalwart body and their spacious mind;

For, folded in her form each human mite

Has its first home, its sustenance and light;

Hers the live warmth that fans its spirit flame,

Her generous sap supplies its fleshly frame,

And e’en the juice,—the fullborn infant’s food,

Is yet a blanched form of woman’s living blood.