The Portland daily press., 1883-04-27
Magazine Literature.
Topics Discussed by the Monthly Press,

An essay of timely value is from the pen
of Mr. George William Curtis in Harper's
Magazine. The editor of the Easy Chair is
one OF the most honest advocates of the high
or education and advancement of women.
and what he says on this subject-from
whatever standpoint he views it's always
interesting:
Ii the observance of Lent has become
more fashionable, 1t Is fortunate that fash
ion has glass held up to it in church, into
which 1t does not look in the boudoir or the
drawing room. At the door of the temple,
as she passes in, 1t is well that tho airy and
jeTeled dame aud demoisele shall receive
the salutation, Here fashionable vice shall
be shown In its own image.o 1t is we'll that
IN Gods house, II not in Midas's, Lady Clara
We're de We're should hear that she is not
made Of purer and more privileged clay be-
cause she can crust herself with diamonds
ana trace her lineage to pirate, but that
she IS an offender against Divine laws and a
corrupter of her poorer sisters, and that,
toiiing not nor spinning, yet, however ar
rayed In all her glory, she is not the peer of
the least of her honest and laborious sisters
II Lent shall be the season in which radical
truths like these shall be told with convic-
ton and power to those who seldom hear
the truth of themselves, 1t will be in good
faith season of publication and renewal.
But what is the real root of the situation
which the preacher justly touched with
words of fire? What is the final cause of
the various tendencies and evils which he
depicted? The Easy Chair has preached
more than one sermon upon the same text.
The root of the wild excuses of fashionable
folly, deepening into actual crime, Is the
view of women which men generally adopt
and which women generally accept II lies
in the refusal to
RECOGNIZE IN WOMEN
the same liberty Of choice in the conduct Of
life which men assert and maintain for them
selves. 1t lies in the distrust of those laws
OF nature In regard to women which are Inn
plicitly trusted in regard to men, aud in the
assumption of men to decide for women
what IS becoming in woman. Men perpetu-
ally talk OF the sphere of woman as If women
did not know their own sphere quite as well
as men know theirs, and men argue about
the occupations and education of woman as
II women were not as competent to choose
for themselves as men for themselves. But
II men are to decide what is truly womanly,
and direct the activities and studies of won.
en-, practically denying them the freedom Of
choice, which men will fight to the death to
eN~NAS tNA sAStAtoS1NOc- TIC CONSEQUENCES are
inevitable Not more surely will he that
sows the wind reap the whirlwind than he
who would impose upon society to-day the
medieval estimate of women reproduce me-
dieyal morals and manners
Elther woman must pursue her own de-
velopment, according to her nature, as snan
pursues his, trusting that the divine laws
which direct man correctly will also direct
women, or she. must be governed in all
fhinprS hp he xvt1l -.
economy of the universe woman is a co-ordi-
nate sex with man, created equally in God's
image, necessarily, therefore, with the same
rights, although obviously with different
functions, whence is derived that sovereignty
OF man over woman which is assumed In the
claim that she shall be woman. not as her
own nature demands, but as he chooses to
dictate? How can man reasonably assert
that he knows
WHAT Is woMASLy
better than a woman knows 1t, and conse.
quently that, being stronger and able to en-
force his will, 1t shall be womanly for her to
do what he chooses, and unwomanly to DIFF
fer from him2 The Chinese deny women
souls; Mohammed regarded them as created
Tor the delight of men. Mohammedans and
Chinese, consequently, logically hold that
women should be educated, not as they
themselves choose, but as Mohammed thinks
necessary for them in order to fill properly
the sphere for which he believes them 10 be
designed.
But II doctrine of the spheres and rela-
ton OF the sexes logically regards women as
odalisques and houris, it must not shrink
from the consequences. Those who hold
that not the instincts and minds and con-
sciences, the modesty and tact and tender
ness Of women, but the theories and specu-
lations of men about the sphere of woman.
should govern the lives of women, must ex
pect to see in women frivolity, fiaftery and
falsehood and all their fruits.