The age-herald., 1900-05-06
THE MURMUR
 OF THE WORLD

ment that remained unappeased through the years. His conception of the mother placed her no higher than creature who merely bred children-men children, pre- | ferably, for soldiers were required. He ! directed all his officers to marry, and gave | a dot to every maiden too poor to wed | man of rank He compelled marrying and | the giving in marriage as the prop and stay of his empire; and so looked upon the | breeding of men much as he would regard | the breeding of other animals Napoleon
 was simply an exaggerated type of the men | of a century of centuries in respect to old views regarding a custom which is come
 now to have place in our religion as | blessed sacrament The goddess laws were l framed for mems coarser purposes in day | that was darker, and they are not now in- cluded in the revised code of ethical en- | lightenment. God now gives men wives and the earth mothers for the worlds up- building, not for q universal Armageddon. | Mandknd, eyer damned rascal, has been
 so lifted up and soul-tided by woman that | he is convinced she is the worlds evangel,
 and he halls her as blessed. Mankind now | wears a collar and though 1t bear wo- | mans name as owner it is still a collar | the starred badge of knighthood. The real l Order of the Garter has d thousand Black | Princes and every prince wears beneath his | corslet the face of a woman concerning whom there shall be evil thought.
 Beneath the human breast, sometimes | shallow, sometimes deep, there ever lies the | human heart. It is there. and there to love, | not to hate. It is there, the shrine of fair | faces and proud. Every mans heart is an altar to some woman, and to it he speaks | the Hail Mary of his soul. His Dulcinea is l real; she is not dream of Tobosa; and he | is eager to swear to you that she is the | most beautiful woman in the whole world. | Let him so swear. It is truth, as his soul | interprets truth and that is all the gods | ask. "Darlin' Is the prettiest woman in all | the country" was feeble husbands trib-
 ute to his wife, who had eyes and hair that had been always faded. He We un- aware of the solecism. and of the impulse of contempt which he aroused in the | thoughts of the two or three men of the world who heard him. Yet the poor fel- lew's faith and his devotion to his illusion were glorious, if ever there be glory in rude faithfulness to faded ideal. He took no account of the rustic cackle of his fellows or his little worlds opinion. She was the
 most beautiful woman, he swore by all good things; and he stood ready to proclaim her incomparable charms to all men and fling his glove full and fair in the face of the world One liked him for that. This is
 my Jane, and if thou sayest she is not the
 most beautiful of women, thou liest!''
 
 Woman's supreme dear duty is to love, and love Is her sweet heritage. The better she loves to love the greater the treasures of affection that will be given her, and the tenderer and nober her work for the good of humanity. The other day in a notable public meeting of good women one woman related the story of her Encouragement in the work of organizing small book circles, and 1t sounded like the recital of an epic.
 She was as faithfully seeking to carry en- lightenment into homes that needed light as the missionary is striving to plant the cross before hz-zthen idols. Enlightened herself, she sought to enlighten others; good herself, she would make others like wise good Whatever her name, her deeds are known of the angels.
 For the soul that gives is the soul that lives;
 And bearing another's load
 Doth tighten your own and shorten the way And brighten the homeward road.
 For narrow bigoted, selfish, falsely proud man one feels voiceless contempt;
 for such a woman one hath pity. Both do place themselves without the pale of good fellowship. Spiritually they unkempt, untidy-the man bagged at the knees, and the woman having holes in her stockings. They are vainglorious fools uncivil, boor- ish-nere babblers of babblement eager to condemn what the Saviour would par don Themselves not without sin, they go about dearly burdened with stones to cast at men and women above them. Neither do I condemn thee" is a divine judgment, the spirit of which never reaches them in their swine wallow of self-righteous- ness But there are only few of these, in the goodness of God, and they serve as the black background against which vir- tue shines in glorious radiance.
 Saw you the woman of superlaIive charm her whose proud spirit is yet more beau tifuI than the radiant face that illumines all things round about her? Marked you the gemming of her laughing eyes, the curled lips rosy and ripenng. and the play there of smiles that might have fingered after an angels kiss of benediction? Noted
 you the bending of that regal head, ever so
 gently falling forward as a rose caressed
 by some viewless zephyr from the vesper-
 land of joy that is pure, bliss not defiled
 by unholy senses, moved by music, and
 the voiceful love swaying as if by touch of
 baby hand? Traced you the line of beauty,
 the adorable curve so instinct with the soul
 of the diyinest of all divine gifts to the
 worlds treasure-house of beauteous things
 that lead to the abandon of dreamful hopes,
 anticipations, longings? Saw you the rose
 mouth part panting in joy, and heard you
 the lisped words of that 1.-the, lssome, lov-
 ing realization of all mans tenderest
 dreams since he began to pass the dream
 worlds winding ways? Had you not the
 impulse to let fall your tremulous speech
 to the whisper of praisefu prayer, and in
 the presence of the living, pulsing bound ing truth consecrate yourself anew to truer and nobler and purer things as you saw