The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-03-08

be dlstanced by men. Yet, to-day, all our
| older schools exclude her. When our fe-
male colleges reach the age and influence
that our older ones for men have done, it
will I've time TO compare results. The
experience of every teacher bears out the
assertion of the mental equality of the
girls. Even in our common schools they
often lead in all the classes. Take your
average boy and girl of to-day, send them
TO the same school, and often the girl will
leave the better scholar of the two; but to
the boy age brings Independence and re-
sponsibility. He must look out, if he be
good for anything, to use the education he
has acquired to make his way in the world;
she must wait idly, aimlessly for some one
else to make her destiny, or mar it as is
twenty the girl is in advance; at forty the
man has left her behind, not as conse-
quence of mental superiority, but of greater
opportunities.
The women of the past who have won
distinction are worthy of all honor. Look
ing at their subsection in the light Of his
tory we can only wonder how any have
ever reached a place in the temple of fame,
but the coming years are bright with hope
for civilization as consequence of the sof-
tening influence of women. We have al
most reached time when her equality is
admitted. Schools now abound and hope
@,,,t., l,,,,, 20 f,,f,,
lcnium is coming through material pro-
gress rather than missionary labors. War
is being sent back to hell, more as a conse-
quence of steam and electricity, than of the
church; and best of all, the day approaches
when women will stand forth as the peers
of men, socially, professionally and politi-
cally. Christianity is outgrowing its shell
and the outside world is catching its spirit.
The lamps of christianity are flashing from
the Bosphorus and beneath the crags of
the Hmmalahas, not old medieval chris
tianity, but christianity softened and mod
flied by all the influences of modern
thought. AS it is the only faith that has
in it the germs of grogress, it must still
continue to spread until the whole world is
full of its teachings. The others of the
worlds great religions have done their
work, as preparedness for better faith
When I speak of christianity here, l mean
liberal christianity and use the term in its
widest sense.
The world is now swayed by feeling as
much as arguments or force. This is one
fact that gives our writer's of fiction such a
widespread power. The dogmatism of the
past is giving place to the language of the |
feelings. Judgment can be controlled as
readily through the emotions as the men
tai faculties. This power is, to a large
extent, in female hands.
We admit then, that women have not
kept pace with men in the race ofintellect,
but we claim that the few who have risen
to distinction, have risen in spite of obsta-
cles of which men have known nothing.
We claim that women are the mental
equals of men, but that her world wide
subsection to his will, compelling her to
breathe an air of submission from the era
die to the grave, has destroyed her capac-
ity, and accounts for any intellectual fail
ure on her part. We claim that the relig
ions of the world, instead of having reflect
ed the will of Deity, merely expressed the
human idea that strength must rule, and
so far was the work of man rather than of
God. We claim that whenever woman has
had chance, she has equalled, sometimes
excelled the capacity of men. Last we
claim that the increased facilities for female
education is one of the best hopes for the
future; and that female intelligence and
equality is one of the best guarantees for
the publication and preservation of true
home life; the truest eartly type of heaven
that our earth can produce. Equality be-
fare the law, will soon become something
more than an unmeaning term, and the
world be placed fairly on the way toward
the realization of that ideal toward which
poets and philosophers have so long look
ed: the anxiously hoped for " Golden
Age