"Because of motherhood," said the minor pope in Ivàn Ivànovitch,
"each male
Yields to his partner place, sinks proudly in the scale:
His strength owned weakness, wit—folly, and courage—fear,
Beside the female proved males's mistress—only here
The fox-dam, hunger-pined, will slay the felon sire
Who dares assault her whelp."
The betrayal of the mother's trust is the "unexampled sin," which scares the world and shames God.
"I hold that, failing human sense,
The very earth had oped, sky fallen, to efface