"Mine is an idiot!" said another, and wept.
"Mine is stunted by the mill work!" said another, and wept.
"Mine is ignorant and grows vicious because of our poverty and the vileness wherein we must live!" said another, and wept.
And I cried to them again, "But you are millions upon millions—and you are Mothers! And you can have today—if you will but take it—Wisdom and Freedom and Knowledge and Power, and you can feed and teach and guard and save. And if you do not, the blood of The Child is on your hands! And The Child is The World—the Whole World—a Baby World—and yours!"
But the great picture faded and fled away. The Child disappeared and left first the flickering flight of a million babies like the leaves of a forest, and then but one, my child, asleep before me. That vague and mighty figure of The Mother disappeared, leaving first the sad-eyed faces of a million mothers—loving, serving and suffering—and then nothing but myself and my child.
But in my heart remained an emptiness that nothing could fill. I caught my baby to my heart—but he was not enough! I had seen and I had loved the Child—the Baby World.
"Oh Child of Mine!" I cried, "I will love you and serve you and I will feed and guard and teach and save—but that is not enough! You are but one, oh Child of Mine, and there are millions and millions! There were—there are—and there will be! It is a stream—a torrent. It is everlasting. Babyhood upon earth continuously, always Babyhood, Human Babyhood—and not yet Motherhood to meet its needs!"
No savage Mother is enough. No slavish Mother is enough. No narrow, selfish Mother is enough. No pitiful offered sacrifice of one Mother's life is enough.
The Child does not need sacrifice. It needs Wisdom and Freedom and
Knowledge and Power. It needs Social Motherhood—the conscious, united
Mother Love and Mother Care of the Whole World.