Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1860-02-18
{ From the Atlantic Monthly.l
Ought Women to Learn 10 Read'


projects for remodelling the rellgion ant
government Of his empire, the ironIcsl sat
Iirist, Sylvan Marechal, thrust IN lis "Plal
,Ifor Law prohibiting the Alphabet t
Women" Daring, keen, sarcastic, learn
ed, the little tract contains to-day so mucl
of its pupgency, that we can hardly won
der at The honest sim ;licity the authors
,ltrlend and biographer, Madame Gacon
i Dusour, who declared That he must be par
TALLY Insane, and proceeded 10 prove her,
self so by replying TO him. bis proposed
statute consists Of eighty-two clauses, and
is fortified by whereas OF a hundred
and thirteen weighty reasons. lie exhausls
the range Of history TO show the frightful
results which have followed his taste OF
1.-The fruit of the tree Of knowledge; quotes
The Encyclopedia, TO prove that the wo-
man who knows the alphabet has already
lost portion of her innocence; cites the
opinion Of MolieTe, that any female who
has unllappily learned auythipgin This line
should affect ignorance, when possible -
asserts that knowledge rarely MAKES men
attractive, add females never; opines that
won en- lave no occasion to peruse Oyid's
" Art of Love- since they know il all 10
advance; remarks that three-q OF
female authors are no better than they
should be; maintains that Madame Guion
would have been far more useful, had she
been merely pretty and an iguoamus,
such as Nature made her, that Ruth aod
Naomi could sol read, and Boaz probably
would never have married into the family
had they possessed that accomplishment,
that the Spartan women did not know
The alphabet, nor the Amazons, nor Pen
elope, nor Andromache, nor lncretis, nor
Joan of Are, nor Petralch's Laura, nor the
daughter Of Charemagne, nor the three
hundred andsixtv-tiye wives oiMohammed
but that SaRpho and Madame de Main
eton could read altogether too well, while
the case Of Saint Brigitta, who broQght
forth twelve children aud twelve books,
was clearly exceptioned, and afforded no
safe precedent.
We take it, that the brilliant French
man has touched the root Of tie matter.
Ought women to learn the alphabet -
There The whole question lies. Concede
this little fulcrum, and Archimedes will
move the world before she has done with
liz; il becomes merely a question OF time
Resistance must be made here or nowhere
OJstd prinepits. Woman must te SUB
ject or an equal; there is no middle ground
What if the Chinese prorerb should turn
out, after all, the Summit Of wisdom, "Foi
men, to cultivate, virtue is knowledge -
for women, TO renounce knowledge is vir
ltue.'
No doubt, the progress of events sslowr
like working Of the laws of gravitation
generally Certainly, there has been bn'
hltle change 10 the legal position q wo
man since China was in its prime, unit
within the last dozen years. Lawyers ad
INIT that the fundamental theory of Eng
lish and Oriental law is The same on TIM
point; Man and wife are one, and that ons
: is the husband. 1t is the oldest Of lega
i traditions. When Blackstone declares
that 6 the very being and existence of the
woman is suspended during the marriage.
and American Kent echoes cher legal ex
|istence and authority are in manner lost.
when ioeterSdofff asserts that " the bus
band has the right Of imposing such cor
p oreal restraints as he may deem necessa
Try" and Bacon that " the husband hath
lby law, power and dominion over bis wife
and may keep her BY force within th'
: bounds of duty, and may beat her, bu
: not in violent and cruel manner, -wheI
Mr.. Justice Coleridge rules that the hus
band, in certain cases, has right |,
confne his wife in his own dwelling hous'
and restrain her from liberty for an indefi
mite time" and Baron Anderson sums it al
! up tersely, !" the wife is only the servant
Of her husband these high anthoritie
simply reaffirm the dogma of the Gento'
code, four thousand years old and more
" A man, beth day and night, must keel
bis wifs so much in subsection that she b
mo means be mistress OF her own actions
llf the wife have her own free will, not
withsianding she be of superior caste
Eshe will behave ansiss."
Yet behind these unchanging institu
tions, pressure has been for centuries be
coming concentrated, which, now that i
has begun to act, is threatening 10 over
throw them all. 1t has not yet operated
very yisibly in the Old World, where
(eveu in England the majority Of women
have not yet mastered the alphabe!, and
can not sign their own names in the mar
riage register.
But in this country, the vast changes O
The last twelve years are already q Inatt.i
Eof history. No trumpet has been sound
ed, no earthquake felt, while State after
State has ushered into legal existence one
half OF the population within its borders
Every free State in the american Union,
except perhaps Illinois and New jersey,
has eoudcded % married Women, III some
form, the separate control OF property
4 Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and
Il Pennsylvania have gone farther and given
\ them the control Of their own ealnings
lglveni i wholly and directly, that Isl while
New York md other States have given i,
partially o. indirectly. Legislative com
; miltees IN Ohio and Wisconsin have rec
lommende 4. in prirtaa xanarss - ~