Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-03-09
CARLYLE ON ''EEMALE EMANCI-
PATION."

A correspondent sends the following
letter, written by Mr.. Carlyle to medi-
cal student who had been a prominent
supporter of his candidature for the Lord
RectOrship of Edinburg University, and
who had written to him requesting an ex-
preston of his opinion in regard to the
entrance Of women into the medical pro-
fession:
No. CHEYNE Row, CHELSEA, Feb. 9,
1S71.-DEAR SIR: 1t is with reluctance
that write anything to you on this sub
.ject of female emancipation which is now
rising to such hight, and | do it only
on the strict condition that whatever |
say shall be private, and nothing of it
get into the newspapers. The truth is,
the topic, for fv3-and-twenty years past,
especially for the last three or four, has
been mere sorrow to me, one of the
most affecting proofs Of the miserable an
archy that prevails in human society,
and have avoided thinking of it, except
when fairly compelled. What little has
become clear to me on it | shall now en-
deavor to tell you
In the first place, then, | have never
Uut lllC III uG d1ll lODlG iuUSllOll
of woman in this world was, is, and
forever will be, that Of being a wife and
helpmate to worthy man, and discharg-
ing we'll the duties that devolve on her,
in consequence, as mother of children and
mistress of a household, duties high,
noble, silently important as any that can
fall to a human creature; duties which,
if well discharged, constitute woman, IN
a soft, beautiful, and almost sacred way,
the queen of the world, and which, by
her natural faculties, graces, strengths,
and weaknesses are every way Indicated
as specially hers. The true destiny OF a
woman, therefore, is to wed man she
can love and esteem, and to lead noise
lessly under his protection, with all the
wisdom, grace, and heroism that is in
her, the life prescribed in consequence.
1t seems. furthermore, indubitable that
if woman miss this destiny, or have re
nounced it, she has every right, before
God and man, to take up whatever honest
employment she can find open to her in
the world Probably there are several or
many employments now exclusively III
the hands of men for which women might
be more or less ft,-printing, tailoring,
weaving, clerking, etc. That medicine
is intrinsically not unfit for them is prov
ed from the fact that in much moressound
and earnest ages than ours, before the
medical profession rose into being, they
were virtually the physicians and sur
geons as well as sick-nurses-al that
the world had Their form Of intellect,
their sympathy, their wonderful acute
ness OF observation, ETC., seem to indicate
in them peculiar qualities for dealing
with disease, and evidently in certain de-
parlments Chat of female disease) they
have quite peculiar opportunities OF be
ing useful. My answer to your question
then, may be that two things are doubt
full to me in this matter.
l. That Women-any woman who de-
hberately so determines-haye q right
to study medicine, and that it might be
profitable and serviceable to have facili-
ties, or at least possibilities, offered them
for SO doing. But
2. That, for obvious reasons, female
students of medicine ou ght to have, if
possible, female teachers, or else an ex-
tremely select kind of men, and, in par
ticular, to have young women present
among young men in anatomical classes,
clinical lectures, or generally studying
medicine in concert is an incongruity of
the first magnitude and shocking to. think
of to every pure and modest mind
This is all | have to say, and send it
to you under the condition above men
toned, as friend for the use of friends.
Yours sincerely.
T. CARLYLE.
London Standard.