hters, grandchildren, with uncles, aunts, and cousins,
Not a man or a woman among them--a wretched crew!

Madam, you have done well! You have fed all these to repletion--
You have put a gilded calf beside a gilded cow,
And bidden men and women behold the forms of human completion--
Albert the Good, Victoria the Virtuous, for ever--and now!
But what to you were our bravest and best, man of science and poet,
Struggling for Light and Truth, or the Women who would be free?
Carlyle, Darwin, Huxley, Spencer, Arnold? We know it--
Tennyson slavers your hand; Argyll fawns at your knee!

Good, you were good, we say. You had no wit to be evil.
Your purity shines serene over Floras mangled and dead.
You wasted not our substance in splendour, in riot or revel--
You quietly sat in the shade and grew fat on our wealth instead.
Madam, you have done well! To you, we say, has been given
A wit past the wit of women, a supercomputable worth.
Of you we can say, if not "of such are the Kingdom of Heaven,"
Of such (alas for us!), of such are the Kingdom of Earth!

FAREWELL TO THE CHILDREN.

In the early summer morning
I stand and watch them come,
The children to the school-house;
They chatter and laugh and hum.

The little boys with satchels
Slung round them, and the girls
Each with hers swinging in her hand;
I love their sunny curls.

I love to see them playing,
Romping and shouting with glee,
The boys and girls together,
Simple, fearless, free.

I love to see them marching
In squads, in file, in line,
Advancing and retreating,
Tramping, keeping time.

Sometimes a little lad
With a bright brave face I'll see,
And a wistful yearning wonder
Comes stealing over me.

For once I too had a darling;
I dreamed what he should do,
And surely he'd have had, I thought,
Just such a face as you.

And I, I dreamed to see him
Noble and brave and strong,
Loving the light, the lovely,
Hating the dark, the wrong,--

Loving the poor, the People,
Ready to smile and give
Blood and brain to their service,
For them to die or live!

No matter, O little darlings!
Little boys, you shall be
My citizens for faithful labour,
My soldiers for victory!

Little girls, I charge you
Be noble