The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1889-06-16

way, and will inform the historian Of tho
future us to tho life OF the people of
England--these and all his other charac-
ters-be than anything that We find
even in the pages of Green's "History OF
the English People," OF Dickens, the
friend OF mankind, Oliver Wendell Holmes
said he was "a kind OF Shakespeare, work.
ing in terra Gotta instead of MARBLE" And
the great editor Henry j. Raymond, said
at dinner given to the novelist in New
York, that call that he has written has
been calculated TO mluse into every hu-
man heart the feeling that every man was
his brother, and that the highest duty he
could do in the world, and the highest
pleasure he could confer upon himself, and
the greatest service he could confer upon
humanity, was to bring that other heart,
whether high or low, as close to his
own as possible Thackeray's types
were nearly all OF them women OF tho
eighteenth century, aud mono OF them
Becky Sharp" has made an impression
anything comparable to his mon, some OF
whom, like Col. Nowcomo, are very noble
characters indeed. The death scene in
1.-THE Newcomes" will be recalled rs
one OF the most touching and pathetic
ever described by any writer. Walter
SCOTS Jennie Deans stands for type OF
devotion and the truth at any cost OF per-
sonal sacrifice, and rs George Eliot has
given us the finest type OF the Jow in
Daniel Deronda and Mordccai, no has
given us tho noblost type OF the Jewcss
in Rebecca, which we now know was
Il portrait OF an American Jcwoss -lie
becca Grata-many OF whose descend
ants are today TO be found in Kentucky
and Philadelphia. We say nothing OF
SCOTS heroic characters, for they are
not TO our purpose OF "Women In Fact and
Fiction" Buwer's women characters are
all OF them conventional, rs are nearly all
those OF our American novelisls Yet
they help TO redeem the iollios OF the
stage Of our day with its bouile
opera and nude spec,aclcs. aud
they wholly redeem tho confessions OF
a very recent form OF the novel in which
exceptional phases OF lie are maGc.as plain
"Asina Looking Glass" "Whcn. contin-
ues Lanier, "ths pre- Raphaelites clamor
that railroad and telegraph have fatally scar
red the whole face OF the picturesque and the
ideal among us, reply that ON the other
hand the Nictoricn women are moro beau
tiiul than any product OF times that
they call picturesque and ideal"
And no might have added that the
NiclOricn women are more practical than
those OF any other ago or time; that they
are workers and not droncs, and that to
some OF them George Eliot largely
owed the types she has stamped as
almost living personalities, As she
invested many OF those characters with
the strength OF love for her fellow be-
ings 80 the leaders among women In this
country have carried into the consideration
Of public questions the most powerful
pleas for human right and dignity, aud
justice tempered with mercy. Exercising
the suffrage rs they do Ia many countries,
limited In most cases, TO be sure, they
cannot be held back or ostraciscd because
OF their advocacy Of equal rights and
equal aud exact justice before the
law for all. What they look for, Us George
Eliot once said IN conversation with a
friend, lisa limo when tho Impulse ~
help our fellows shall be as immediate aud
rs Irresistible ~ that which feel 20 grasp
something firm II | am falling" This is
the gospel Of q great woman who,
according TO Lanicr, IL IN literature the
companion OF Eschylus. Plato, Socrates,
the contemporary Greek mind, through
the Renaissance, Shakespeare, Richardson
aud Fielding down 10 Dickens. II isa
gospel and an appeal that no man or
woman recalling tho golden rule eau ~.
sisi. And IL is supplemented by another
appeal by Mm. Stanton, the olo-
qucnco OF which IA equally irrc-
sislible. "Undcr Government" she ox.
claims, "and religion recognizing In rational
beings the rights Of conscience aud judg.
ment In matters pertaining TO their own
interests, above all authority OF church
and State, IL needs no argument 10 prove
tho sacrolncss Of individual rights, the
digni OF individual responsibilities. Tho
solitude OF every human soul, alike In our
moments Of cxultation aud humiliation,
in our highest joys aud deepest s0rrowa.
into which no other one can ever fully
enter, proves our birth-Tight 20 supreme
scli-sovcrcigniy As Ia all the great omcr.
goncius OF life, We must stand alone, aud
for final judgment rely upon ourselves, We
can not oycrcslimalc the necessity for that
liberty by which We attain our highest
development aud that knowledge that iils
as for scli-fcliance aud Ecli-prolcciion.
This Is tho whole case OF wOman's right
fairly stated. Aud there arc millions Of
women from whom this right h yet with
held, ~ there aro millions for whom We
must still labor, millions who cannot reach
oven 10 the foothills that lead 10 the
supreme nights where Lanicr's Niclorcn
women stand, the loving, gracious and In.
tcllcctull types Of on hgc ~ vastly supo-
rior 10 that 0f the eighteenth century, an
age in which all women have moro liberty,
few Of them, In favored States, every
liberty, an ago In which women are hon.
orcd as they never have been before, ono
In which labor u dignilicd aud hOnorcd Of
all men, and one The tendency Of which
IL TO tho realization Of tho dream VI equal.
ity resting ON divine love.