The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-09-08


has a large proportion of this spirit;
and it darkens the pages of Pope,
Swift, Fielding and Sterne.
The influence of women has been to
refine away every thing Of this kind
and to make all literature pure and
wholesome. Literature does not lose
by ceasing to be coarse and depraved,
either in originality or strength; but it
gains in breadth of influence and in
richness Of power. The moral tone of
society has been largely changed since
women have been generally educated,
and since they have exercised an infu-
ence upon society outside their own
homes. On social life, on morals, on
education, as well as on literature, they
have brought to bear powerful infu-
ence for reformation and for regenera-
tion.
In one other direction, at least,
women have exercised an influence of
the utmost Importance upon the intel
lectual life of modern times. What
ever is best in realism has been largely
due to their influence. In so far as
realism is sympathetic with human
nature, not in its depravities, but in
its aspirations and in it's struggles for
light, and in what there is good in it,
women have given the main incentive
which has led to its development.
Literature as sympathetic interpreta-
tion of human nature, appreciative of
its experiences even in the lowest per
sons, and wherever found, owes very
much to women.
Men have always shown tendency
toward abstraction in their thinking.
In the sciences and in political economy
this is largely the case at the present
time. They do not recognize the
claim of the individual in measure
sufficiently large; and they teach
science as system Of abstract princi
pies and laws. Women care more for
persons; and they will be more likely
than men to study science with refer
ence to its ability to ameliorate human
conditions, and as a means of affording
motives and helps to higher human
activity. They will make political
economy more practical and helpful,
because they will not forget the indi-
vidual claim, and will keep the person
al need clearly at the front. In their
-search FOR principles they will not for
get that men and women are starving
from the effects of poor application
of the laws of political economy. The
most womanly men in feeling and
spirit, such as RuskiD, have already
made this personal application of
science; and there is great need that
the wOmanly element enter more and
more into all such studies to give them
a humane quality.
They have also powerfully helped in
lifting society above the lust of sense
and the greed of money, bringing
spiritual aims to bear upon it, and
giving it conviction that man is to
live for something else than meat and
drink. In this, as in the case of the
other influences named, women have
been powerfully aided by other inlia-
ences of modern times; but they have
accomplished for humanity what could
not have been brought about without
their aid, and what has been productive
of the most benefcent results.
II. Judging in the light of the past,
what are the indications as to woman's
future literary achievements?
The survey which has been made of
the education of women, and of their
literary achievements in relation there
to, enables us to present the reasons
why women have not accomplished
greater results in history, art, poetry
and science.
The first limitation has been that of
education, which has been lamentably
deficient before the present generation,
and which has not yet outgrown some
of its most serious defects. 1t has
been deficient in method, narrow in
aim and restrictive in spirit. 1t has
been guided by the theory that women
are intellectually inferior to men in
every particular, that they are incapa-
BILE of high degree of intellectual
training, that culture is incompatible
with their place in society, and that it
is unwomanly to develop and to use
the mind.
Colleges and universities have not
been open to women; and it has been
impossible for them to secure a
thorough education under conditions
most conducive to mental development.
Almost without exception, the women
who have attained to high places in
English literature have been self-edu-
Gated or educated without the aid of
the discipline of great public institu-
tiOns, and under circumstances which
have been more difficult to overcome,
in the interests of a true culture, than
in the case Of self-edueated men.
Women have not had the necessary
preparation and training to enable