Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/181

 very name is a shame to speak; who counterfeits with a cold heart the transports of affection, and submits herself as the passive instrument of lust; who is scorned and insulted as the vilest of her sex, and doomed, for the most part, to disease and abject wretchedness and an early death, appears in every age as the perpetual symbol of the degradation and sinfulness of man. Herself the supreme type of vice, she is ultimately the most efficient guardian of virtue. But for her, the unchallenged purity of countless happy homes would be polluted, and not a few who, in the pride of their untempted chastity, think of her with an indignant shudder, would have known the agony of remorse and despair. On that one degraded and ignoble form are concentrated the passions that might have filled the world with shame. She remains, while creeds and civilizations rise and fall, the eternal priestess of humanity, blasted for the sins of the people.

Sisterhood

(Contemporary American writer)

Last night I woke, and in my tranquil bed I lay, and thanked my God with fervent prayer That I had food and warmth, a cosy chair Beside a jolly fire, and roses red To give my room a touch of light and grace. And I thanked God, oh thanked Him! that my face Was beautiful, that it was fair to men: I thought awhile, then thanked my God again.