hem,
and his life exhaled as a vapor.

A child was born in another country, and the tender eyes of his mother
saw that his limbs were misshapen and his life-blood a sickly current.
Yet her heart yearned over him, and she would have tended and trained
him and loved him better than all the rest of her strong, well-favored
brood; but when the elders of her people knew that the child was a
weakling, they decreed that he should die, and she bent her head to
the law, which was stronger than her love.

In a third land a child was to be born, and the proud father made
ready gifts, and purchased silken robes, and prepared a feast for his
friends; but, alas! when the longed-for soul entered the world it was
housed in a woman-child's body, and straightway the joy was changed
into mourning. Bitter reproaches were heaped upon the mother, for were
there not enough women already on the earth? and the fiat went forth
that the babe should straightway be delivered from the trials of
existence. So, while its hold on life was yet uncertain, the husband's
mother placed wet cloths upon its lips, and soon the faint breath
stopped, and the white soul went fluttering heavenward again.

In still another of God's fair lands a child entered the world, and he
grew toward manhood vigorous and lusty; but he heeded not his parents'
commands, and when his disobedience had been long continued, the
fathers of the tribe decreed that he should be stoned to death, for so
it was written in the sacred books. And as the youth was the absolute
property of his parents, and as by common consent they had full
liberty to deal with him as seemed good to them, they consented unto
his death, that his soul might be saved alive, and the evening sun
shone crimson on his dead body as it lay upon the sands of the desert.

* * * * *

At a later day and in a Christian country two children were born, one
hundred years apart, and the world had now so far progressed that
absolute power over the life of the offspring was denied the parents.
The one was ruled with iron rods; he was made to obey with a rigidity
of compliance and a severity of treatment in case of failure which
made obedience a slavish duty, and he was taught besides that he was a
child of Satan and an heir of hell. He found no joy in his youth, and
his miserable soul groveled in fear of the despot who dominated him,
and of the blazing eternity which he was told would be the puni