58
THE PRINCESS;
'On that which leans to you, I know the Prince,
I prize his truth: and then how vast a work
To assail this gray prëeminence of man!
You grant me license; might I use it? think,
Ere half be done perchance your life may fail;
Then comes the feebler heiress of your plan,
And takes and ruins all; and thus your pains
May only make that footprint upon sand
Which old-recurring waves of prejudice
Resmooth to nothing: might I dread that you,
With only Fame for spouse and your great deeds
For issue, yet may live in vain, and miss,
Meanwhile, what every woman counts her due,
Love, children, happiness?'
I prize his truth: and then how vast a work
To assail this gray prëeminence of man!
You grant me license; might I use it? think,
Ere half be done perchance your life may fail;
Then comes the feebler heiress of your plan,
And takes and ruins all; and thus your pains
May only make that footprint upon sand
Which old-recurring waves of prejudice
Resmooth to nothing: might I dread that you,
With only Fame for spouse and your great deeds
For issue, yet may live in vain, and miss,
Meanwhile, what every woman counts her due,
Love, children, happiness?'
And she exclaim'd,
'Peace, you young savage of the Northern wild!
What! tho' your Prince's love were like a God's,
Have we not made ourselves the sacrifice?
You are bold indeed: we are not talk'd to thus:
Yet will we say for children, would they grew
'Peace, you young savage of the Northern wild!
What! tho' your Prince's love were like a God's,
Have we not made ourselves the sacrifice?
You are bold indeed: we are not talk'd to thus:
Yet will we say for children, would they grew
