Note 23 — Chapter VIII · SOME FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS

Women know The way to rear up children, (to be just) They know a simple, merry, tender knack Of stringing pretty words that make no sense, And kissing full sense into empty words, Which things are corals to cut life upon, Although such trifles: children learn by such Love’s holy earnest in a pretty play And get not over-early solemnized ... Such good do mothers. Fathers love as well —Mine did, I know—but still with heavier brains, And wills more consciously responsible, And not as wisely, since less foolishly. Elizabeth Browning: Aurora Leigh, 10.