Woman's chronicle. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1888-1???, 1890-11-08


derful people, the Spanish Arabs, among whom
women were public lecturers and secretaries of
kings when Christian Europe was sunk in darkness.
In Italy, from the fifteenth to the nineteenth CEN
fury, it was not esteemed unfeminine for women
to give lectures in public to crowded and admiring
audiences. They were freely admitted to learned
societies, and were consulted by men of pre-emi-
nent scientific attainmens as their equals in schol-
arsbip."
Nor is this all. ''In the middle ages women
preached in public, supported controversies, pub
lished and defended theses filled the chairs of
philosophy and law, harangued the Popes in Latin,
wrote Greek and read Hebrew. Nuns wrote
poetry, women of rank became divines, and young
girls publicly exhorted Christian princes to take
up arms for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre"
And none of these women were called unwomanly!
In those dark ages, being able to do thing was
the open sesame to its execution. There was the
maiden Novella, of Boil gna, who studied law and
conducted her fathers cases yelled, in order that
her beauty might not lead justice astray. AT
twenty-six she took the degree of laws At thirty
she was elevated to professors chair and taught
law to scholars of all nations. Her example was
followed by others of her sex. No one accused
this brilliant and beautiful woman of being I'M
womanly. What names she would be called to-
day Yet how all delight in Portia, and how she
is applauded, even in male attire, when pleading
Antonio's cause Portia loses none of her fascina-
ton because her brains keep pace with her heart.
But this is ON the stage.
Madame Roland defended her husband at the
bar with frmness and eloquence. Even now she
is proclaimed glory to womanhood. Jane de
Montfort fought for her Duchy of Bretany and has
been made the heroine of a tragedy. Even Semi
ramis, who subdued the East, and the Amazons
who conquered ASIA were never called 'strong-
minded!'
1t seems to me, If lecturng be tolerated at all,
it should be from women and for these reasons.
Ever since the subsistence of chaos, men have beeh
talking. For six thousand years, at least, men
have ''stum ped" creation and been patiently list
ened to by audiences largely composed of women.
Now artist will tell you that two sides of the
same face are exactly alike. Let us, then, have
the other profile, whereby we may see the entire
face gaze into tell-tale eyes and thus get at the
soul of all things.
There is as much sex in mind as there is in mat
ter, and it is this difference that renders each sex
so charming to the other There is sex in thought !;
and it is the feminine side of thought heretofore
ignored, that should be heard. Whether it be
better or worse than mans is not the question.
The right of hearing only is asked If the thought
be good for nothing, no harm is done. If it be
good for something, the whole world is the gamer,
for every truth belongs to all humanity. Men
have given their verdict not only upon themselves,
but upon women 1t is time that women tried
their own case.
Taking for granted all that is known about
women, they ought to make more attractive lee
.turers than men. do not think they are, so far,
but they ought to be- and these are my data:
Women are more graceful; they have the gift
Of beauty and the privilege Of dress. Hence they
are greater qualification to the eye, and the ma
jority of audiences hear with their eyes. Women
are more impulsive, more sympathetic, more per-
suasve; therefore they are more likely to touch
the heart, and when you have made an audience