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

been men of especial physical or military
proves, and their deeds the song and
theme of tongue and pen. 1t did not mat
ter how little intellect those heroes Of the
older years might have possessed, it was
the strength of the physical man that gave
them prominence. The career of our race.
from the earliest we know of its history.
has been steady struggle upward from
one height of improvement to another
One OF the great lessons that the peolo-
gIsts have taught us, is, that through all
our planets commissions and changes. from
one class OF existences TO another, through
the age of shell fish and encrintes, of rep
tiles and lizards, through all the immense
ages that must have elapsed since that
mysterious beginning when God created
heaven and earth-swung our solar system
a mass OF flaming gas into space, our planet
has witnessed steady career of develop
ment. Tho procession of life in each of its
great periods has been led by the lowest
type of each species, struggling up from
the cocoon to man. Each new species has
gained tribe on its predecessor, each one
has made our planet a little better a triae
more pleasant residence for its population.
This course of progress did not cease when
at last man appeared. The first we know
with certainty of man is of the cave dwell
ers; certainly the truest conservative does
not envy them their comforts. From their
time to ours the career of our planet has
been ever onward. From the humble fos-
sill of the earliest period to the last great
triumph Of mind over matter, we can see
the steady onward march of improvement:
-tramping steadily on along the ages.
The civilization of the past, has been to
great extent the work of force, moral
ideas seldom had much to do with it.
From the blood red burrows of war have
sprung the flowers of peace and progress.
The tabled Golden Age " is pushed away
back into the domain of myth and fable,
the real earlier times were passed in con-
test of the strong for power over the weak.
We see this in the rise of the earlier States.
Some chieftain of more than usual physical
P'o"Ooo hPCliCu IuO "cdhCI lO SuDfllb 10
his sway. The era of conquest, gradually
softening, comes down to our own times,
still struggle of the strong for domina-
| ton over the weak. We are at last begin
| ming to recognize the claims of right over
| those of might. Justice is now at last
claiming some scart recognition for the
weak as well as the strong. Intellect is at
last claiming recognition instead of mus
Gle. The civilization of the past has been
an armed one, the moral element is now
pressing up for recognition, The mascu-
line civilization of the past is being soften
ed and modified by an infusion of the fe-
male element
If the old Hebrew myth has any claim to
recognition, Adam, man, was created first
and turned out to take care of himself, but
God soon found out the blunder he had
made and tried his skill on women. She
was created, as we must believe, something
better than man, because something later,
as in all ages, the latest has been the best.
If our best critics are worthy of cledGnce
two sets of records run through the book
of Genesis: the first makes the creation of
man and woman simultaneous work, the
last creates Eve as an afterthought; when
God found out that he had made a mistake
in his first attempts The truth is neither
are worthy of more attention than many
another myth that has been taught until
people have learned to believe in it and
shape their actions accordingly. When 1
hear people prating about the origin of
evil, feel much like asking, would you do
cowardice and hypocrisy, when, as the
story tells u.s. he exclaimed cowardlike:
"The woman thou gavest me did tempt
me and did eat" This disposition to
throw our faults upon somebody else is
inherited, as we'll as original sin.
From the earliest times the subsection Of
women has been one of the plainest facts
of our planets history. Instead of stand
ing by the side of man as his equal and
helpmeet, she has been made the victim of
his passons-the plaything of his softer
hours. Something, scarcely better than
his dog, but little dearer than his house,
for in many cases man, | may as well use
the word, no brute would act as he does,
will treat his dog with more consideration
than his wife, whom devil serving church
compelled him to give the pledge to pro-
tect. A pledge that sits lightly on his
shoulders, while hers to obey is milestone
about her neck.
People tell us that women are not capa-
BILE of the same amount of mental exertion
as men. Such folks do not read history,
they forget that women have been denied
own way in the world. They forget that
they have been compelled to become depen-
dents from the cradle to the coffin, that
they have been forbidden by social customs
and by law to shape their own destiny as
they deemed best, and as a consequence
that the female intellect having no room
for expansion has been drawfed, not by
nature but by custom. If women have not
furnished Newtons, Pascals, or Calvins,
we can read the reason, not in their men-
Val weakness, out IN their enforced SuG1eC-
ton to the wills of men. A sad price, too,
the world has paid for this subiection.-
One from the payment of which it will take
centuries to recover.
Read ancient Jewish history. When
the theocracy was consolidated into
despotism under David, debauchery and
vice seem to have asserted themselves in
all this force. In the earlier times of the
Jewish State we hear of Miriam and
Deborah, never in its later. When such
bloody despots as David Or gilded towards
as Solomon began to hunt among the pleas
ant homes of Israel for the fairest and pur-
est to fill their harems, Israel began
course of swift decline. The people of
course followed the examples of the kings
and the subsection of the women became
complete, while the more complete that
subsection became, the more complete also
Concluded on 3rd page.)