Litchfield enquirer., 1871-03-02
WHOLE NO 2387

strings. Many, and conflicting, have been
 the views held concerning the vices and
 virtues of woman, but all ages have agreed
 in an apparent belief in her deficient in-
 tellectual capacity, and, -hee inability to
 cope with the greatest problems of thought.
 Hence, they have concluded, we must dole
 out to, her only Cr those draughts
 of knowledge which. her mind is fitted to
 receive, and see that she stray into no
 paths but those she knows how to tread.
 It is an amusing inconsistency which nev-
 CT seems to have struck them. If this Him.
 itation of her powers to any one sphere be
 natures provision and not theirs, why
 should there be need of so many precau- tions to prevent her from following the higher walks of service and learning which
 have been designed for others? If women
 cannot but fail therein. one would think
 that no surer way could be devised for con.
 vincing the world of this, than by furnish.
 ing the spectacle of actual failures which
 they have committed. One man may as-
 sert that another cannot lift as many
 pounds as he, but if he takes good care
 that he shall never touch the weight, we
 may not be able to deny his statement, but
 we may be very suspicious of the sincerity
 of his own belief in its truth. i asYJ
 It is idle to trace the rise of this opin-
 ion respecting the inferior nature of wo-
 man. That it has existed since remotest
 time we know; but if this proves it's iis-
 tice, it proves, likewise, that slavery can
 not be wrong, and that kings rule by di.
 vine right; and it would warrant the Oeles-
 tial in maintaining to remotest ages that
 his sister was soulless being and prop
 CT article of trade.T Tg Perhaps Adam him.
 self was to blame for it's origin : andS in- 2 tdeed, we can1beheve almost any cungallaht thing of him, who, when he had eaten the
 apple, lacked honor enough to suffer for it
 like man and to protect his companion,
 but, like coward, did his best to throw
 the blame upon her, and to screen himself
 at her expense. .-....- Certainly no individuals in modern times nor any one gen neration, should be held re- sponsible for it; nor can they be much blamed for accepting it so readily. It is an inheritance of prejudice into which all
 men are born, and which women them selves have, for the most part, shared with them. Nothing but the clearest sense of , , right and the most dispassionate reason ing can have enabled any mind, in days less enlightened than the present, to see the falsity of that belief upon which have have been founded all the institutions of society. The more, then, do we honor : those generous souls who have been the first to, demand that justice be done our sex, and all trammels to their culture thor oughly removed A-- ""~ 7-a 'o a's0 The establishment of public high schools !, for girls, in all our cities, has been a fea- , tnre of the past thirty years, and this alone has exerted great influence in ele. vating the life of woman and making her / talents available to herself and the world. , The studies there taught do not necessari- ly supplant the accomplishments, but they hold them to their proper place as orna- ments and charming trifes. Still higher 2 schools must be opened, before tllis wrong of the ages can be fully righted. Though the guardians of our New England colleges have not ceased assuring the young ladies who come pleading there for admission, that such learning is too difficult for them, and that they had better return to their music and dancing, their painting and em- broidery. they have heard the bolts Ay back from the gates of the great Western , University, and these guardians know that :. soon they must find themselves as helpless , to withstand this incoming tide of pro- gress as Canuto was to drive. back the sea. Soon they will comprehend the wisdom of to-day, which says, since woman is half the
 world, half the world shall be hers, and her work, whatever it may be, must be chosen by herself alone; and to prepare fer it, the state shall be bound to furnish her with the highest general culture and the most thorough special training 1t can provide. The century which is destined to give her i, the freest use of her own powers will take rank hereafter as the most important in the worlds progress; for when woman comes with trained mind, serious thought and earnest heart, to help lift the burdens of life with which men have too long strug- gled alone, we shall first learn what sue
 cess and harmony mean. rU .E fo tLiaa