The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-29 00:00:00

IV MAY S PLACE 1N NATURE,

The British Association at Norwich, in its
zeal for the improvement of " Economic
Science," has undertaken to determine anew
woman's place in nature. This attempt was
made by Miss Becker, in a lecture on the
" Supposed Difference in the Minds of Men
and Women." To treat the place which woman
occupies in nature as a subject appertaining
to the department of Economic Science and
Statistics is a fallacy, for this subject belongs
to a higher order, and refers to the end for
which both men and women were created. In
the order of nature there is not similarity but
difference ; between men and women this
difference is not accidental, but essential ; it is
rooted in the nature, physical, moral, and in-
tellectual, of the two sexes. This radical dif-
ference affects in every way the relations be-
tween men and women, and forms their highest
bond of union. It is not a question, as Miss
Becker supposes, of equality or inequality, but
of co-ordination. If both sexes were, as the
lecturer contends, in all but physical respects
not only equal but similar, this necessary co-
ordination, which is visible in the whole
scheme of nature, would be interrupted, and
rivalry and confusion would take the place of
sympathy and order. The moral and intellec-
tual, as well as physical, difference between
men and women is the source of mutual attrac-
tion ; perfect similarity repels, but common
observation teaches how variety attracts.
If the object of the creation of the two sexes
be to render them helpmates to each other, the
one to supply what is wanting in the other,
it is impossible to conceive how this end could
have been better carried out than by the crea-
tion in each of qualities, capacities, and powers
equal in force, but different in kind. - The
moral and intellectual qualities of woman, in-
asmuch as they differ from those of men, not
only exhibit the pleasing variety which is
the characteristic charm of nature, but con-
joined with those of a different kind, natural
to man, produce as their joint result the per-
fect man.

For woman to remove, even were it possible,
the moral and intellectual differences which,
as the universal sense of mankind attests, dis-
tinguish her, would be to destroy the beauty
of variety, to disturb the harmony of order and
to lessen, by the withdrawal of sympathetic
co-operation, the beneficial results now spring-
ing from the union of the various qualities of
the two sexes, The truer woman is to her
nature the greater is her power. How great
her power is, how subtle and mysterious her
influence in the formation of character, how
deep the reverence and love she inspires in
her highest quality as mother there is not a
man living, who is not utterly worthless and
reprobate, that does not bear grateful testi-
mony.

To attain to perfect moral and intellectual
similarity with man, at the sacrifice of her
womanly qualities, would be to destroy her
peculiar influence and to lose the hold she now
has upon the world. Her chief charpa, too,
would be lost. Schiller truly expresses what
every man feels—
Des \Veibes groiste Zierde ist die Weiblichkeit.

Woman's chief charm is womanliaess:

The British Association at Norwich is not
competent to settle by lectures delivered in
the section devoted to " Economic Science
and Statistics," the place woman ought to
occupy in nature. We prefer to leave to
the natural instincts of woman rather than
to the discrimination of a Scientific Society
the choice of her place in the Christian world.
We feel certain that she will never sacrifice the
power she now exercises over the minds of
men, the hold she has on their hearts, for the
sake of attaining to a moral and intellectual
similarity with them. It is nobler far and
truer to her nature, as exhibited since the be-
ginning of time, to reign in her peculiar way
than to enter into a contentious rivalry.
Under the Christian dispensation, in the
meantime, we must never forget how noble
and glorious is the task imposed upon woman.
To her is confided the care of the Christian
family, her highest duty to bring up children
as the co-heirs of Christ,to set them a bright
example of faith and fortitude ; in life and in
death to teach them, by acts more even than
by- precept, perfect obedience to the will of
God ; and when a Christian mother has ful-
filled in constant fidelity the charge entrusted
by God to her keeping, what reverence and
love does not her name inspire on earth, and
what a crown of glory may she not expect in
Heaven!—Westminster Gazette.