Daughter am I in my mother's house, but mistress in my own.

Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem about Canada, which includes the lines

A Nation spoke to a Nation, A Throne sent word to a Throne:
"Daughter am I in my mother's house, but mistress in my own."

In the book I'm currently reading, Chesterton repurposes the lines above to talk about the Thomist idea of local autonomy under God: how God doesn't want followers who are automatons, but rather wants followers who are mature and able to make their own decisions. I never thought of this idea with respect to the Commonwealth before, and it's a fascinating metaphor.