Note: The following poem is made available through Creative Commons, which allows for it to be reprinted in this forum with proper attribution.

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Justice consists in doing no injury to man;
decency in giving them no offense.
– Marcus Tullius Cicero

∞∞∞

from 1865, William Ross Wallace
w/ The Hand that Rocks the Cradle Rules the World

Blessings on the hand of women!
   Angels guard its strength and grace.
In the palace, cottage, hovel,
   Oh, no matter where the place;
Would that never storms assailed it,
   Rainbows ever gently curled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
   Is the hand that rules the world.

Infancy’s the tender fountain,
   Power may with beauty flow,
Mothers first to guide the streamlets,
   From them souls unresting grow —
Grow on for the good or evil,
   Sunshine streamed or evil hurled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
   Is the hand that rules the world.

Woman, how divine your mission,
   Here upon our natal sod;
Keep – oh, keep the young heart open
   Always to the breath of God!
All truetrophies of the ages
   Are from mother-love impearled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
   Is the hand that rules the world.

Blessings on the hand of women!
   Fathers, sons, and daughters cry,
And the sacred song is mingled
   With the worship in the sky —
Mingles where no tempest darkens,
   Rainbows evermore are hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
   Is the hand that rules the world.

Nothing is truly random.