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

its conclusions, because it does not take
note of the fact, that the mental ma
lures of women have not been develop
ed Systematically and thoroughly in
any direction. The intellectual at
mosphere about them has not been
favorable to their intellectual growth,
and they have had no true stimulus to
the use of their mental gifts.
Social influence has been very power
full in promoting and continuing this
intellectual torpor on the part of
women. They care more for public
opinion than men do, love to appear
well before their fellows, and have been
taught conformity as the first duty of
life. Social demands have absorbed
their time, and there has been little
social stimulus to intellectual exertion
on their part. The notions men have
entertained, and persistently inculcat
ed, in regard to woman's social posi-
tion, have retarded and even destroyed
mental development. Women have
willingly accepted the inferior place
because they have been schooled per-
sistently to regard it as necessary. The
ideals presented to women have not
been Of an intellectual nature.
In the case of women, the financial
stimulus to intellectual exertion has
been absent until recently, and even
now finds only a limited expression.
The religious influence has been, and
is, very powerful in retarding the intel
lectual development of women. The
subordinate political position of women
has also been very effective in the
way of intellectual repression.
Though women have made great
progress during the last three hundred
years, on the whole greater progress
than men, yet society still imposes on
them powerful restrictions, which are
seriously crippling in their nature.
Not only is the education given to
women inferior, but social ideals keep
women from intellectual eXertion,
debar them from an untrammeled use
of the mental powers, and keep them
within the limits of a life that is in
ane and proftless.
If women are to take their true
place in society, and if they are to in
fuence the world Intellectually, spirit
ually and morally, and in accordance
with the true genius of the sex, the
old ideals must be transformed. Slow
ly they have been giving way, but there
is much yet to be done before woman
can take her place as co-worker with
man for the highest ends of human ex-
istence.
Perfect equality in education is de-
manded, before women can do any
great work in literature, art or science.
If they are given true education, they
will acquire and use it in harmony
with their own natures. So long as a
special education is provided, so long
women will fail Intellectually. 1t is
not accomplishments they need, so
much as culture. Co-education in the
fullest sense is the only true ideal; and,
in the very nature OF things, that will
come at day not far distant.
Every conclusion as to the intellect.
ual capacities of the sex, which makes
women mentally inferior to men, is a
conclusion drawn from artificial condi-
tions, which do not represent the true
nature of women, but the nature formed
by men in accordance with false
notions of their character and place. If
women are sentimental, frivolous,
emotional, unduly religious, wanting
in strength of mind, they have been
made so by the education they have
received, and by the position which has
been assigned to them in society. They
have not had the rounded development
men have had, and they have not had
anything like the same stimulus to
mental eXertion.
If men had been educated and con-
trolled for thousands Of years in the
way that women have been, there is
every reason for believing they would
not have reached higher results in lit
erature, art and science. History
proves very clearly that subject races
of men have not advanced mentally
and morally, and that they have devel-
oped the meaner qualities of human
nature in undue proportion.
An extended experience alone can
test what women are capable of doing
intellectually. Such experience they
never yet have had under conditions
which have permitted them a full and
perfect expression of their natures; at
least, not among any considerable
body of women at the same time. Give
them freedom to act for them selves,
and they will seek and remain in their
true place. The evidence of history is
allpOwerful in saying that women will
work no social revolutions, that they
will not cease to be wOmanly and
motherly, and that they will not repu-
diate the home and the interests which
cluster about it.