THE VIRGIN
91
it is cheaper
to keep a cow , and once and for
all
have
done with
it,
than
to
be
constantly
running round
the
corner
for
a
penny
-
worth
of
milk
;
and
the lower
stratum
-
the blesséd
poor
-
spend most
of
their lives
in
the
act
of
engendering
the
elite
of
heaven
and
the
scum
of
this earth
,
“
mere
shells
,
husks
of
the
golden
wheat
that might grow even here
,”'
if
it
were
not for our prudery
,
our religion
,
and our laws
.
Percy
--
the
Percy
of
“
The
Poem
,”
and
not
of
“
Why Jesus Wept
,”
is
optimistic enough
concerning
that vast army
of
unsexed
women
who are degraded
by
want
of
food and surfeit
of
marriage
;
for
it
is
to
these two that their existence
as
such
is
chiefly
due
.
If
wives
were
a
success
,
man would not want
to
go
neighing after other
women
;
if
food were not
so
ex
pensive
,
women
would not
sell their bodies for offal
.
Vaughan says
to
him
,
pointing
to
a
prostitute
,
“
Do
you
find
beauty
in
her
?
”
to
which
Percy
answers
:
“
No
,
but
I
see
in
her history
a
poem
,
to
which
I
trust that God will write an
end
!”
And
so
the God
,
who
is
eternal
Love
,
at
present
does
—
in
the Lock
Hospital
or
over Waterloo Bridge
.
Nevertheless
there
is
a
great truth hidden
in
this line
.
The truth that
love shall triumph over mind
,
or
rather
that both shall
agree
.
If
the carnal
act
is
foul
,
it
is
then
as
foul
in
the palace
as
in
the brothel
:
mere prostitution
of
the
body need not necessarily
mean
a
similar prostitution
of
the
mind
,
as
we
saw
in
the
“
Tale
of
Archais
.'
Every woman's body
is
as
free
a
possession
of
her
own
as
that
of
every
man
is
of
his own
,
and what
is
disgraceful
to
woman
is
equally disgraceful
to
man
,
and vice versa
.
Law
to
be
true
must
be
just
,
and
as
"
2
1
The Poem
,
vol
.
i,
p
.
57
.
2
Ibid
.
vol
.
i,
p
.
58
.