But here--here in the white Silence of the Dawn, Before the Womb of Time, With bowed hearts all flame and shame, We face the birth-pangs of a world: We hear the stifled cry of Nations all but born-- The wail of women ravished of their stunted brood!
This excerpt evokes a sense of urgency and transformation, as it addresses the painful birth of a new world amidst suffering and oppression.
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Let the ears of a guilty people tingle with truth, and seventy millions sigh for the righteousness which exalteth nations, in this drear day when human brotherhood is mockery and a snare.
Actively we have woven ourselves with the very warp and woof of this nation,—we fought their battles, shared their sorrow, mingled our blood with theirs, and generation after generation have pleaded with a headstrong, careless people to…
So wofully unorganized is sociological knowledge that the meaning of progress, the meaning of “swift” and “slow” in human doing, and the limits of human perfectability, are veiled, unanswered sphinxes on the shores of science.
Our song, our toil, our cheer, and warning have been given to this nation in blood-brotherhood.