Part 5 (1/2)

THE REASON FIRM, THE TEMPERATE WILL

It is a part of the necessary theory of republican governhest types, not its lowest The proposition of the French revolutionary states all the cowards and knaves, is liable to the objection that it would find victiins at the other end, and assuood intentions at least, and some common sense, however it may be with individuals Take the very quality which the newspapers so often deny to woreat objection to the entrance of the female mind into politics is drawn from a suspicion of its unsteadiness on s could by any possibility be enlisted” Thus says the New York ”Nation” Let us consider this ieneralizing frole instance,--”just like a woman,” as the editors would doubtless say, if a wo whole classes of that sex, taken together

These classes need some care in selection, for the plain reason that there are comparatively few circles in which woh freedom of scope, or have acted sufficiently on the same plane with men, to furnish a fair estimate of their probable action, were they enfranchised

Still there occur to me three such classes,--the anti-slavery women, the Quaker women, and the woe cities If the alleged unsteadiness of women is to be felt in public affairs, it would have been felt in these organizations Has it been so felt?

Of the anti-slavery movement I can personally testify--and I have heard the sa my elders, such as Garrison, Phillips, and Quincy--that the women contributed their full share, if not more than their share, to the steadiness of that s were itive-slave cases Who that has seen mobs practically put down, and nity of those rows of wo, more imperturbable than the men, can read without a sain, a Quaker women, I have asked the opinion of prominent Friends, as of John G Whittier, whether it has been the experience of that body that wohty and unsteady than men in their official action; and have been uniforative And finally, as to benevolent organizations, a good test is given in the fact,--first pointed out, I believe, by that eustus Woodbury of Providence,--that the whole tendency has been, during the last twenty years, to put the ement, even the financial control, of our benevolent societies, more and more into the hands of wohtest reason to reverse this policy Ask the secretaries of the various boards of State Charities, or the officers of the Social Science associations, if they have found reason to complain of the want of steadfast qualities in the ”weaker sex” Why is it that the legislation of Massachusetts has assigned the class requiring the steadiest of all supervision--the imprisoned convicts--to ”five commissioners of prisons, two of whom shall be women”?

These are the points which it would be worthy of our journals to consider, instead of hastily generalizing frole instances Let us appeal from the typical woman of the editorial picture,--fickle, unsteady, foolish,--to the nobler conception of womanhood which the poet Wordsworth found fulfilled in his own household:--

”A being breathing thoughtful breath, A traveller betwixt life and death; _The reason firth and skill;_ A perfect woman, nobly planned To warn, to coht With soht”

ALLURES TO BRIGHTER WORLDS, AND LEADS THE WAY

When a certain legislature had ”School Suffrage” under consideration, the other day, the suggestion was made by one of the pithiest and quaintest of the speakers, that men were always better for the society of woht to vote in their company ”If all of us,” he said, ”would stay away frohters with us, we should keep better corowsthe better class of ress in the condition of women There can be no doubt that the increased association of the sexes in society, in school, in literature, tends to purify these several spheres of action Yet, e come to philosophize on this, there occur some perplexities on the way

For instance, the exclusion of woman from all these spheres was in ancient Greece al Greek poets, as Holy chaste in tone, and in this respect beyond ain, no European nation has quite so far sequestered and subordinated women as has Spain; and yet the whole tone of Spanish literature is conspicuously grave and decorous This plainly indicates that race has much to do with the matter, and that theseveral factors In short, it is easy to make out a case by a rhetorical use of the facts on one side; but, if we look at all the facts, the ain, it is to be noted that in several countries the first women who have taken prominent part in literature have been as bad as the uerite of Navarre and Mrs Aphra Behn This ain entrance into literature by accepting the dissolute standards which they found prevailing But it would probably be more correct to say that these standards themselves were variable, and that their variation affected, at certain periods, woious books as well as merry stories; and we know froh character in Edinburgh used to read Mrs Behn's tales and plays aloud, at one tih one of the sae, that she could not read the Shakespeare puts coarse repartees into the e Sand is not considered an unexceptionable writer; but she tells us in her autobiography that she found arandmother's papers poeh, and yet they bore the naentlenity and honor Voltaire inscribes to ladies of high rank, who doubtless regarded it as a great colish ”fleshly school” would now print at all In ”Poems by Eminent Ladies,”--published in 1755 and reprinted in 1774,--there are one or two poe in Swift; yet their authors were thought reputable women Allan Ralish and Scottish songs--was first published in 1724; and in his preface to the sixteenth edition the editor attributes its great success, especially a the ladies, to the fact that he has carefully excluded all grossness, ”that the ht meet with no affront;” and adds, ”the chief bent of all races” There is no doubt of the great popularity enjoyed by the book in all circles; yet it contains a few songs which the most licentious newspaper would not now publish The inference is irresistible, from this and many other similar facts, that the whole tone ofthe European races within a century and a half

I suspect the truth to be, that, besides the visible influence of race and religion, there has been an insensible and almost unconscious improvement in each sex, with respect to these matters, as time has passed on; and that the mutual desire to please has enabled each sex to help the other,--the sex which is naturally thethe lead But I should lay more stress on this mutual influence, and less on mere feminine superiority, than would be laid by many It is often claimed by teachers that co-education helps not only boys, but also girls, to develop greater propriety of manners When the sexes are wholly separate, or associate on terood influence occurs: the more equal the association, the better for both parties After all, the Divine enuity cannot improve much upon it

IV

THE HOME

”In respect to the powers and rights of married woe Here are seen the old fossil footprints of feudalis to woman tends to make every family a barony or a monarchy or a despotis, or despot, and the wife the dependent, serf, or slave That this is not always the fact, is not due to the law, but to the enlarged huress of civilization has changed the family from a barony to a republic; but the law has not kept pace with the advance of ideas, manners, and customs”--WW STORY'S Treatise on Contracts not under Seal, -- 84, third edition, p 89

WANTED--HOMES

We see advertiseed Woed Men” The question soin the provision earlier, and see that hoed and even the young The trouble is, I suppose, that as it takes two to ain, so it takes at least two to make a home; and unluckily it takes only one to spoil it

Madae as an institution where one person undertakes to provide happiness for two; and many failures are accounted for, no doubt, by this false basis Sometiant dees which have proved a wreck alh the fault of the wife Nor is this confined to wedded homes alone I have known a son who lived alone, patiently and uncoly, with that saddest of all conceivable co man who supported in his own home a mother and sister, both habitual drunkards All these were American-born, and all of respectable social position A house shadowed by such ht have proved such but for the sins of women Such instances are, however, rare and occasional compared with the cases where the same offence in the husband makes ruin of the home

Then there are the cases where indolence, or selfishness, or vanity, or the love of social excitement, in the woround where perhaps woreater sinner It ainst this lect produced by club-life, or by the life of society- lad her husband was so fond of his club, for it aht while she went to balls ”Married o ular flirts,--which I do not think oes every night to his club, and gets hoe since divorced

It is coe cities as destructive of the home The modern club is simply a more refined substitute for the old-fashi+oned tavern, and is on the whole an advance in e cities a s to a club, if he can afford it, as a means of contact with his fellows, and to have various conveniences which he cannot so economically obtain at home A few haunt clubs constantly; thethan these, perhaps, are the secret societies which have so revived a us since the war, and which consume time so fearfully There was a case ed to some twenty of these associations; and when he died, and each wished to conduct his funeral, great was the strife! In the small city where I write there are seventeen secret societies down in the directory, and I suppose as many more not so conspicuous I meet men who assureof the week except Sunday, when they go to churchThese are rarely men of leisure; they are usually mechanics or business men of some kind, who are hard at work all day, and never see their families except at meal-times Their case is far worse, so far as absence froe cities; for these are often men of leisure, who, if -places, which such secret-society men do not

I honestly believe that this ely due to the traditional separation between the alleged spheres of the sexes