132 Life and Love. 



from the chaos of food material in which it is 

 immersed. 



Could we look as through a window into the 

 womb of the mammal with its burden of forming 

 life, we should see the young creature enveloped 

 in numerous protecting and nourishing blankets of 

 tissue, slowly taking form. We should see the 

 great blood-vessels bringing to it nutriment so that 

 it need neither eat nor breathe, but may merely 

 lie, absorb the life-giving material from its mother, 

 and grow. 



In course of time it is ready to enter the world. 



The bird's egg hatches beneath the mother's 

 breast, this also has done that; beneath the 

 mother's heart the young life has formed, not out 

 in the cold world, but safe in the tissues of her 

 body, absorbing her nutriment, drawing her life 

 into its throbbing veins. 



The young bird is born ; the shell breaks and 

 it looks upon the earth. 



The mammal too is born, its time has come, and 

 forth it issues, perfect, — its advent entailing upon 

 its mother the greatest trial she has yet endured 

 for its sake, the terrible birth-pains. But these 

 too she gladly suffers, that she may solace her 

 maternal heart with this new and precious being 

 born to her, and to be yet more fully loved and 

 cherished. 



With its advent comes a new emotion into her 

 life. There is born to her, not onl)* her child, but 



