The still, small voice of the unborn declares our
responsibility. There may be no reward. What does reward mean? Who
rewards the sun, or the rain, or the oak, or the tigress? But there is
the doing of one's work in the world, the serving of the highest and
most real purpose that may be revealed to us. That is to be oneself, to
fulfil one's destiny, to be a part of the universe, and worthy to be
such a part. And though it be even unworthy for us to suggest that at
least posterity will be grateful to us, such a thought may perhaps
console us a little. At any rate, to those who worship and live for the
past, we may offer this alternative: let them work for what will be.
Perhaps the reward will be as real as any that the worship of what is
not can offer. And, reward or no reward, it is something to have an
ideal, something to believe that earth may become heavenly, and that, in
some real sense which we can dimly perceive, we may be part--must be
part, indeed--of that great day which is in our keeping, and which it is
our privilege to have some share in shaping. Thus we may repeat, and
thrill to repeat, with new meaning, the old but still living words,
_Expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi saeculi_--"I look for
the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."
CHAPTER III
THE PURPOSE OF WOMANHOOD
In due course we shall have to discuss the little that is yet known and
to discuss the much that is asserted by both sides, for this or that
end, regarding the differences between men and women.
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