She was my peer; No weakling girl, who would surrender will And life and reason, with her loving heart, To her possessor;--no soft, clinging thing Who would find breath alone within the arms Of a strong master, and obediently Wait on his whims in slavish carefulness;-- No fawning, cringing spaniel, to attend His royal pleasure, and account herself Rewarded by his pats and pretty words, But a round woman, who, with insight keen, Had wrought a scheme of life, and measured well Her womanhood; had spread before her feet A fine philosophy to guide her steps; Had won a faith to which her life was brought In strict adjustment--brain and heart meanwhile Working in conscious harmony and rhythm With the great scheme of God's great universe, On toward her being's end. I could but know Her motives were superior to mine. I could but feel that in her loyalty To God and duty, she condemned my life. Into her woman's heart, thrown open wide In holy charity, she had drawn all Of human kind, and found no humblest soul Too humble for her entertainment,--none So weak it could return no grateful boon For what she gave; and standing modestly Within her scheme, with meekest reverence She bowed to those above her, yet with strong And hearty confidence assumed a place In service of the world, as minister Ordained of heaven to break to it the bread She took from other hands. And she was one Who could see all there was of good in me,-- Could measure well the product of my power, And give it impulse and direction: nay, Could supplement my power; and help my heart Against its foes. The moment that I thrust The selfish thirsting for monopoly Of her affections from my godless heart, She entered in, and reigned a goddess there. If she had fascinated me before, And fired my heart with passion, now she bent My spirit to profound respect. I bowed To the fair graces of her character, Her queenly gifts, and the beneficence Of her devoted life, with humbled heart And self-depreciation. All of God That the world held for me, I found in her; And in her, all the God I sought. She was My saviour from myself and from my sins; For, with my worship of the excellence Which she embodied, came the purity And peace to which, through all my troubled life, I had been stranger. Thoughts and feelings all Were sublimated by the subtle flame Which warmed and wrapped me; and I walked as one Might walk on air, with things of earth beneath, Breathing a rare, supernal atmosphere Which every sense and faculty informed With light and life divine.