72
THE STAR IN THE WEST
laws of the dead , but through
the needs
and wants of
the living , on the solid foundation of the truest possible
morality ,
based
on
Nature ,
and
manifested
to
us
through
our divine
powers of reason .
And much of
this new morality
do
we
find
in
the
love-gospel of
Aleister Crowley .
First turning
to the love incarnate
in motherhood ,
we find a touching case in the picture of Cora in “
The
Mother's
Tragedy."
Cora Vavasour , late of the halls ,
yet as true and noble a woman
as
ever
lived , a type
of woman that , thank Heaven , is not
so uncommon
among
those whom
the
prudes
call fallen
classes .
Cora was scarcely , however , one of
these ; living
in
luxury
she
tried to bury
the
recurring
past ,
“
Old
hours of horror ,” and
she
trusted
that
“ God hath
made
smooth
the
road
beneath
the
hearse ” of her
“ forgetful age.”
Let me not shrink
! Truth always purifies.
One night I stepped
up tremulous on the stage,
Sang something
, found my senses afterward
Only to that intolerable sound
Of terrible applause.
They shook the sky
With calling me to answer . And I lay
A storm
of weeping swept across my frame
Till the polite, the hateful
Manager
Led me to face a nation's lunatic
Roar of delight ! ?
That was the beginning , but she soon got over that
“and over - yes ! the other thing . '
She fell sacrificed before Mammon , loved opulence
,
was quoted on
the Stock Exchange , became
the toy
of the “ prurient licksores of
society " till her bastard
child was born .
1 The Mother's Tragedy , vol . i, p. 157.