, 1876-08-16
WOMAN'S PLACE IN NATURE.
1Belgrasia1

Mans place In nature seems to be pretty
clearly defined, In spite of the fact that he
"is descended from q hairy quadruped, furnish
ed with q tail and pointed ears, probably arbo-
realm its habits" and that he "still bears IN
his bodily frame the indeliblo stamp Of bis
lowy'origin," be IS the best thing that ve
know and when we formulate a Goa we aio
obliged to make him @ man. 1t IS tho Father,
the Saviour, to whom wo pray, not to abstract
force-which, however, is the sign Of tho pow
err by which we live 1t is man whom We
worship 10 his ideal, man whom we credit with
the possibilities of godhoad, and the attainment
OF absolute perfection not grayitat!on, el0o-
trioity, nor yet the protopIastio cell. This,
then, is his place, in spite of bis dcs-
oent-the highest expression Of embodied
intelligence known 10 us in his perlcc.
tion, according to his IDEAL, a God. And wo-
man : Up to this time, civiliSed society has
been for the most part founded on the prinoi-
pies that the greater includes the less, that
two halves make enc whole, and that man has
meant also woman. Sex has been looked on as
complement, not 0%ntogoniSm ard tho laws re.
gulating the division Of Iab0ur and the appoint
Ihent of duties have rested on the recognition
OF differences, and the btI.ettLat by those dG r.
ences and their free exercise we come 10 harm0-
ny. Man has bean man and woman woman,
and hybtids have not been encouraged, Bat
we have changed oil that now. Tired Of the
embarrassing division made by nature ana
society into we'll. defined men and women. u
third sex is rising Into social being and we
have TO find q NAM and place for those odd
men. m those creatures Of indeteYmlaat0
class, who arc planting heir feet In the middle
distance between the two oyjreme2, calling
loudly on men and gods to witness their GarGs
and their transformation. Retaining nothing
of the one sex but It's form, gaining nothing
OF the other but Its rough-hswn license and
abandonment of incOnven!eut d~eli6aoy, these
meG-WUmen are the ann,0gues Of those queer
compounds which make the despair Of scientific
olassifers. How can we call them women when
they have rejected as the sign az their shame
every mental and moral attribute by which
women have hitherto been known, 0al fer
which they have been lovedl but how are
they men when they have nothing Of she b9li-
~ strength, the mental power, the logical fs,
Guilty by which these govern and make them.
selves respected 7 What can We say 10 w0-
men who voluntarily fling themselves iuto cir
cumStanccs where they know that they will
lose their tenderness, their modesiy, their un.
sel6shness. their devotion I who voluntarily
reDounce all the syeetnegse8 OF womanho0d,
pSASlsteuLly uSEiQS IS Cua AdClSIIStlC h!LluGSI
and spurn its appointed dutiosf who see in lie
only an arena where victory is to the strongest,
and where 'eaoh for bim5elf' is a cry that
makes a louder echo than those old fashioned
versicles about doing unto others as we would
they should do unto Us. ard 10 honour pre-,
ferring one another What can we say to
them when they think womanly unselfshnes5
mark Of mean -spiritedness ? mothorly affection
q mere animal instinct shared With the brutes,
and not ranking higher than that Of The brutes3
naidenly modesty a confession Of mental inferi-
ority taught By long ages CT oppression by ty-
rant man, and which it is Incumbent on the
emsncipated to throw off without delay, as o
slave throws off hs %fettsrs,a prisoner escapes
from bis cell Where place them-shose no.
men who, in Paris and elsewhere, study RnotO-
my and pathology side by side with young men,
aud who hold the fact that they feel neither
shame nor r~epugnance, q proof oftheir superior
it1 to prejudice, not of their calfousneeS to wo-
manly delicacy and their abandonment Of self
res pect 1-those women who are ready to dis.
cuss in public the most revolving subjects, and
to handle without disguise the most delicate
details 1-those women whose highest ambition
10 to be notorious, and to whom the quiet modes,
ties, the unobtrusive usefulness of home, are the