The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-02-19
r. STOCKETT MATTHEW'S JECTITpE

The Ninth Lecture of the Course before the Lii
brary Association of Charles Street Methodist Epis-
copal Church, was delivered on Thursday evening
last, by R. SToCKErr MATHEWS, ESQ.,. of this city
the subject being conventional Notions of
Woman"
The speaker commenced by saying: When we
reflect how many puzzles concealed in the
simplest forms; how many obscurities blurr the ee-
ments of things seemingly transparent, that our
thoughts, wandering over land and sea, return
laden at best with guesses; when we think of the
mysteries antecedent to birth, and the infinite
stretching beyond the grave; when we have learned
the sublime truth that there are as conclusive evil
dences of Omnpotence woven into the tissues of the
violet as there made audible in the thunders of
the volcano and that as much divinity was reGui-
site to create "the splendor of the grass and the
glory of the flower" there is displayed in the
harmony of the spheres and the economy of the
universe, we will feel less dogmatsm and pride,
as men of the world, in our attempts to define the
mission of woman-in its heighth, depth length and
breadth. All our efforts, said the lecturer result in
doing no more than to chisel few hagstones from
the quarries OF truth as crossings for the thorough
fares of life. The fruits of our labors only stimu-
| late, without satisfying our researches. Our
! first consciousness is that of ignorance. We
pass years IN preparing ourselves for the
ascent of life bunder sadly before we find the real
outset, and at every step upward are compelled to
ces we are unable to solve. Who then can have the
temerty to prescribe the latitude and longitude
| beyond which woman the most wonderful as well
the most beautiful of Gods handiworks shall not
intrude? Who is bold enough to classify the uses
| for which she was commissioned. to graduate her
| capacities and subject her to mans assumed pre-
| negatives? Our ideas and treatment of women are
| conventional. She owes much to Christianity but
little to mans voluntary generosity. She is denied
, the sulirages, is subordinated to the man by the
| Common Law, and yet has successfully asserted
under two-told disadvantages her fitness for grand
works which she has achieved in the face of manifold
| discouragements. Our disbelief in the dignity and
grandeur of her mission, deprives us of her valu-
able corporations in intellectual pursuits, which
she is forbidden to enter, on pain of excommunica-
ton from operas, concerts and show-roOms.
| The lecturer here entered protest against being
understood as designing to discuss the problem OF
woman rights. His purpose to sketch her as
she is thought Of spoken of, dealt WITH and written
of by the large majority of men, A modern poet
the son of Sir E. L. Bulwer, has thus moulded into
delicate verse the worlds popular theory of the re-
ationship of the
"The woman fairer than she was wise;
But the serpent wiser than she was fair
For the serpent was lord in Paradise
| Or ever the woman came there.
| But when Eden's gates barrd amau
And the fiery sword on guard in the East
! The Lion arose, from his long repose,
And, quoth he, as he shook out his royal name
Now, am the strongest beast"
Had the woman been wiser when she was Queen
The Lion had never been King i ween.
| But ever since storms began to lower
Beauty on earth hath been second to Power
Of the itinerant clamorists in behalf of woman's
rights at the North, the lecturer declared his utter
adherence: while only pity could be felt for those
unsexed women, who parade themselves in conven-
orc wbosn biood CELL ,nneels anu rec Low
ratio to the GOODNESS of their climate. A woman
dressed in Bloomer costume, was characterized as
by both An sucb women ;nvite onnos;t;on h tt
vary cnoroanoss of ,bo; al ppo ~ VIC
inter disregard of tba heal,br anu tileir
| sant;mant III ~ Pup iet Ie VI puo'ic
en'ln .: ihose "Io entertain truly noeral views
N .ne woman movement, nhd ~ necessary
S, Zen 'iI eo.n"ehI Perlis oi ocylia ana
thnmsjxes 70 tha Moie f WHO eonsecrate
| e.. ' e Iloi a'iuh vi grievances Which
aI' W, Iomn,oh humanity, are frequently re-
T anu tnelr penevoient designs misconstrued
Iney must oppose, alike the phalanx OF respectable
PeoP,e, VINO MAINTAIN an exclusive emma IN the
m;dst Oh ctinzat,on and the ignorant husbands,
miSn ,oi ny NY ase pieu, not .a1cheo: -" nat
IT, lnan 4ohe eNcialm
sne'e mere the lecturer
ia p'e' 'ie '"iiely vi suPerhcIai accomplishments
whicn are supposed 10 constitute the fashionable
euucation vi inouerh peiie, gave sketch OF her
cour.snp, ana then. said ne, sarcastlcaly, alter
maiiiage Is sue not caiieu MRS. John smith, and
en.ieu Wy an peioW her, received Dy her equals,
anu paTonlzeo at Dorcas societies, fairs and char
i.aoie institutions py aevotees OF higher rank-the
sain's IN Lawn surely, nothing more can be
uohe-i' Is ltnpossip,e! me married lie OF such
|
subordinate Postion she Is made to occupy, she Is
heitner an actor IN the WORLDS pomps and pagean-
ll!es, nor Tue queen at whose hands greatness re-
ceiNes any portloh OF us reward referring to the
names gwen 10 girls IN paptlsm, the lecturer re-
marked that they were replete with pretty feminine
Suggestions ana senumepts-as Ada, the happy;
D Del.na, the prlgh,; Ahtoinette, the towering;
Deattice, the piesseu, &C., DC. These fancu bap-
In,sms, said ne, are not peculiar to any cline
Lveuy where are gooaness' gentleness, plety and
purity transiatea INTO names; and yet when these
u"uo t4e " oe anheu WIN men more rugged
Iaa w t, nu' se ElI wahe OUT OF tne
Quo y on rnd;scorninn bmsh,nd '@' VII o"H
Thot u,as clavo 33oast 80, h., . br,,on;,t ..
pInuth D. ; 60 ..TIL " pu: ~ I a. !"
co.'s ,ho Y,oro oan,naIIS - Sd;.; an .t:
..sha, NJ" So; ~ n auu'io " .ueii
Ca; =; " ~ ;iIS a. Nc 10y . wv "nu p'ila PIN.
. go, IF th pii;' W rpth up W s, tie ga
I'm InngfalInu,:s ,an;rs ia f,InJ ta IL,
80 ~ Ill. n;fE g.. d: "I I"Iu " 'i'lum
oh -. .n;ta o,', 1 NY 'nns
moL Of nan md onanp IA nt urer mex
Observation-Disclosures With Zach ntbar daon w. t anu
! brancb IF tha snb;oct bo nrooaadod 30 d;os ~
" tha e;I Of th nrosen, 81 fa1 ~
;on and o,a;mad tbt rnon ho,id e h euI'a
tha hinhar aanbes Of tnnI ~ DI oe'seu i'l
stand as sentinels mon the bsttiomants ~ trntI
armed and trained with their own nncuiiar u,.ano
| To co-onarota with mon in rarnnII; ,ap'nt s
tack which nnanacad the ;ntnrr,, Of ~ a.;
nIs whose nresarvaton ;s asssnt;sI - th
Of onr race lie charrad tbat w LIZ hnS
from infancy into Gradual NAL ho,