The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1869-11-11
I FHiI SHORE.
WOMEN + AND n PoL1r1c cs.
By THE nrv. cHAa1 70 k1s 1sas1rr.

Fro" kteniit'n' d Aagqsine. :. NJ !:
Somewhat more taan three huudrei
years ago, John Knox, Who Cd aid n NOR, j;
than eny man to mould the thoughts o.
bis nation-and indeed IT our Ecnelisf
Poritans'lte~ise-~as writing u little
book oo ntho leRegimsnt Of Wcimen,,
in~bioh he proved woman; ; on aceoun,
pf'her natural interiority to man, unfit
to yule. bsyi@a37 a:i .oHj: y, r. :i>5w
bAad but tho other day; MIR. John
StuarsoMilI,! who has done more than
aty other man to mould the thought
ot'theotising'' generation of Euelishi
men, has written little book in the
exlctly opposite sense, on aThe Sab
jsSt3sntf Women :, id which he proves
woman, 'o1 Eascouhf sof: her natural
equality with man, to be fit to rule.
Truly "the whirligig of Time brings
round its >reyenges." To this point
the reason of the civilized nations has
come, orzat least Is coming Fast after
some fifteen hundred years Of uureasoa,
and of literature Of unreason, which
discoursed 'gravely and learnediy of
nuns and witches, hysterla and mad
ness, persecution i ai!n a and torture, and, like
a nadmsn in, his dreams, built up by
ffir7r'efragable, logic : le::inverted pyr-
amid Of seeming truth upon a single
faye 2 premise. re- To this it has come, ,af!7
ter long centuries il which woman was a;ai
regarded By ;e'e'liba,.e theologians as the
"pol1Eious 'pelEi! y aninal,r tho -temptress, the
source Of earthly misery, which deriv- :.
ed-at least in one 81 case-'femina"
from "fsv 5te faith and "minus',' less; be.
cause AUS Nemen had less faith than men s
whiehtrepresentednthem as Of more vi! vi!
olent |t2 T. and ,unbridled animal passi ions ); !;
Which explained learnedlyi swhys they.
were more tempted than men to- heresy
and vitcheraft, a and more subject. (those
especially who lave beautiful hair)s to
the attacks, tf tef. demons and and, ii ID Z:
wore, regarded them IL . necessary
eyill,,ts ygl, aike ike tolerated, despised, repress-
ed, and if possible fshut;up in hummer.
;ese1 ese1l!'1 f3tIii -.:<:@h- - a.:
III ;c"e aG II! e: -:
7*O this literature Of celibate unrea-
son those Who have no time: to read for
themselves ehe pages Of: sprengsr, Nj
d1lele,f, dle,er. q. Dellio the Jesuit, may and no
ticss enough in Michelet and in y both
MET sli: 4<eefky'y, excellent works! ~ They
maydnd enough of:it and to spsre, A.
$50, ,naB Burton's' "Anatomy Of b1elan-
eAholyi"a Anyia Ale, like Knox 4, and 4 many, %: :
other scholar of, the sixteenth and :. .of
the hrst half of the seventeenth CEN
tary, VS. unable to tree his brain Alto
gether from the taola spee4.' which
haunted ne :eell d athea 4 ,bootrlo.s;nl. Il. &
Tho poor student, knowing nothing Of
women, save from books o. s floms saas1 eon,
tact with the most debased, repeated,
15atll..e 15ath. the prurlenoy of BOZ, theG false:
hoods about women which, armed with
{Rs authority Of learned; n doctors, had
grownsreverend: and insontestabls with
ase;;1.na' even after Tie nj kefoatmnatio,pp
more than one witeh-mania proved that
'hef eo5Frnrt sqF tree bad vitality, enough
leit t. bring forth eyl trois. ,,s: '>'> >S ~
Butthe axe had been laid to the
root thereof. The latter; Sw,iitch,paraossei- asi
cutions We're not to be j., compared p, Ioir Ii
extent aud atroeity: TO-. the medieval
ones 6 and first, as it would seem, lin
France, and gradually in, other Euro
ppean countries, the old contempt Of
women was being replaced by admira-
tion and trust. Such examples as that
o4f' o4f' Marguerite d'Angouleme did did much,
especially in the south '!;l' sof f France,
where science: q we'll as the Bible. was
opening mems eyes more and more to
nature aud to fact. Coed little Ronde-
let or any Of his pupils, would have as