Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-12-13

reach an angelic state, than thatwe should have
been angels and have descended 10 a british
condition.
Another progressive sign of our time Is a
higher estimate of the character of woman. In
the golden age of Athens learning was dis
grace to a woman, and even in later times, it
has been asserted and popularity received that
the greatest glory of woman was not to be
talked about of men. Three hundred years ago
young girl was mobbed at Dion, France, for
undertaking to start girls school, and one
hundred years later Dean Swift said that the
number of reading books, except of devotion
and husbandry, is aptto turn woman's brains
with the affeetaton of knowledge beyond what
is merely domestic, and renders them vain and
conceited. A hundred years later than Swift,
in 1910, Sydney Smith said he was amazed at
the immense disparity in the education Of men
and women. In Portia, Shakespeare has drawn
a woman, the more beautiful, because ga wise
young judge" To the most sensitive imagina-
ton, that woman Portia standing in the court
Of Venice was immortal because she stood fast
for humanity, and interpreted the law to
serve justice. Was she less truly fem
mime than Juliet, standing in the bal
bony, murmuring love at midnight. 1t is
an insulting ideal of woman that figures her as
only ii for tending flowers in the window, hap.
py when her husband brings her home brace
let, and screaming when mouse runs across
the floor. The true woman of to-day is not the
woman of the fashion plate, but a Hebe, heaven
descended and welded to Hercules, strongest OF
the gods.
Mr. Curtis then spoke of the growing tenden-
cy toward a more liberal education for women
abiding, in passing, to the bitter opposition
which met the movement to open girls high
school in Boston forty years ago. The gates of
educational Institutions are gradually opening,
and now seventy-scven out of the three
hundred and seventeen institutions OF
learning in this country receive women
on equal terms with men. cover the
barred gates of your own Harvard" said the
speaker "the good genius of education looks
smilingly at The woman who comes up to the
gates and says to her, from the top of that
barred gate, Yes, my dear, if you will study
enough to deserve my degree elsewhere, will
give You my degree am mistaken in the good
geniu; of Harvard if he does not presently throw
those gates wide open, and, as he takes her hand,
if he does not say to her, Where l am willing to
give my diploma, an willing to give my les
sons" (Appause)
The barbarsm OF the past still fingers to some
degree in the estimate of women and women's
work The frequently repeated criticism OF
"Tretty good for woman is an instance in
10, as
this, that it is inferior to mans work. The
speaker discussed this point at some length
asking pertinently if Nilsson or Patti sang
"pretty well for women" or if Rosa Bonheur
paints "pretty well for a woman?" The true
test of DRAMA painting and music, should be
the merit fthe work itself, independent of the
artist
Speaking of woman's sphere, Mr.. Curtis said,
all women ask or need is that they be allowed
the same opportunities as men. Nobody pro-
poses that women shall 90 to college, but that
they may, if they choose. We have no right to
insist that they shall he cooks or housekeepers
solely, any more than man shall coninc himself
to one branch Of industry. All calings and
professions shall be open to her. If she finds
her sphere IN the library, or the observatory. or
the studio, that place belongs to her. The true
theory of the university is best expressed by
Mr. Cornell:-a place where any person can
find education in any branch. Let universities
teach eyerything-Persian or cookery. Much
nonsense has been spoken and written about
the sphere of woman. Let us know first if you
have allowed her perfect liberty. Providence
has taught her best her sphere. We shall never
know the possibility of her development until
she is left to try. What is now conceded reIat.
ing to woman's education will soon be conceded
| 10 all else concerning woman. Having gained
this victory others will follow.
Mr.. Curtis closed with beautifully elaborate
address, likening the progress of the age in re
gard to the estimate of women, TO the coming
| of mighty wave Oh a sandy beach.