Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1893-04-20
IN W0MAN'S BEHALF.
AN IDEAL VIEW OF NORMAN.
All Through Humaa History Her Position
Haa Iieen "a IIl0h nnC.

AN IDEAL VIEW OF WOMAN.
All Through Humaa History Her Position
Has Been IA High One.
At every rural cutie show or aEri'
cultural fair one is pretty sure 10 find
the very best room ia the building-if
building there be4aallotted 10 "the
work of the ladies" There may be
found collected the pine-cone frames
and the watcr-color sketches; the little
dogs in worsted and the little cats in
canvas; but it mny BE noticed that the
farmers spend most of the time outside
AMONG the moving machines and the
two-year-olds. II is, nevertheless, an
indication Of the high position Of wom-
an that all through human history
there has been conceded TO her some
thing Of this aesthetic or ideal attitude;
and as the world becomes more refined,
her position changes, simply because
the ideal or aesthetic aspect becomes of
greater Importance. Even among races
that seem barbarous, this ideal side
often so prevails that it puts woman on
pedestal while she seems n beast of
burden. Thus Lucien Carr has shown
us that among many tribes of American
Indians she really eXerts u high author
ity in public affairs; and we never truly
began to appreciate the depth and
elaboration of Indian religious rituals
until educated women like Miss Alice
Fletcher and Mrs. Erminnie Smith were
initiated into these tribes, and taught
their mysteries. And Thierry long
| since showed that the ancient Germans
of Tacitus, of whom it was said that in
all important transactions they con.
suited their women, were really in a
condition very analogous to that OF our
Indians both in this respect and In
many others
But language, even more than instl-
tutions, shows always this recognition
of something higher in the feminine
nature, even where the actual and visi-
bic woman was most despised and
wronged. In the new volume Of en-
tracts from Thoreau's delightful diaries
the volume called Autumn--we find
Thoreau, celibate and u lonely man,
dwelling with admiration upon this
evidence from language. "The prac-
tice of giving the feminine gender to
all ideal excelences personfied is a
mark of refinement observable in the
mythologies of even the most barbar-
GUS nations. Glory and victory even
ere of the feminine gender, but it takes
manly qualities to get them, Man is
| masculine, but his manlness (cirtus)
| feminine 1t is the inclination of brute
force to moral power" Among the
| Greeks, while mind was masculine,
truth, honor and country were fcmin-
met and so were strength, force, art
Most of these characteristics extend
into modern languages; thus in Ger
| man, while intellect (der Vt7StdRd) is
masculine, the (d.o Seoie) is feminine;
and though country (das LaBd) has be-
come neuter, yet country in the sense
of landscape or neighborhood (die Lahd-
schcft, die &c end is still feminine Of
course it will not do to press these an.
alogies very far, but there Is no doubt
that some instructive feeling of fitness
lies behind the gender of words in Ian.
guages which still retain that very in
convenient and pulling characteristic.
| 1t is when we pass into the realm of
mythology, and see that every system
of manifold deties has its goddesses,
often equal, sometimes superior to the
| gods, that we sec the instructive recog-
| milton of the feminine element The
mysterious deity who remains in the
background, who gave birth to the very
gods themselves, and TO whom they are
to return, is quite as likely to be u
woman as man. Behind the all-pow-
erful Zeus or Jupiter stands his mother,
| Cybele or RheB, 1.-THE mother of the
gods" and, though she had a husband,
Saturn, yet his worship was local and
almost trivial compared to the wide eX-
tent and vast dignity Of hers. Readers
of Keats Hyperion" will remember
that while Saturn is painted as old, pal
siod and powerless, his wife Rhca is
still young, beautiful and immortal.
Even among the later Greek deities it
was not Ieus, but Here and Athene who
could, conformity, confer valor on mem;
and they go into battle together, bear
ing the @gis of supreme power With
Poseidon Tor Neptune) to aid them, they
almost succeed in putting Zeus himself
in chains, and he is delivered with diff
Guilty only at the last moment. Indeed,
there is no nation of modern times in
which the power of women comes SO
near to equality with that of men as in
the councils of the Greek deities. OF
the Oriental and French novel type of
womanhood-th weak, debased, SEN
sual being-there is really not trace
10 be found there Aphrodite herself is
far above it; and three out Of four of
the greater goddesses-Here (Juno)
Athcne (Minerva), and Arteinis DIANA
are essentially noble and beautiful ideal
figures, 1t is impossible that the young
Greek womanhood would not have been
elevated and dignfied by the contem-
plation of types SO august
The extraordinary position of the
piiestesses of Vesta at Rome, as ex-
plored and described by Lanciani, is
the most striking illustration of this
ideal or spiritual dignity attributed to
women. A sacred band of virgins, the
depositaries of state secrets, the custo-
dams of the very archives of the COM
monwealth, sent as ambassadresses, APP
pointed as umpires; having all state de-
partments, including that of war, sub
jected in degree to their authority,
but themselves subjected to no power
but that of the pontifex maximus OF
high priest; they unquestionably oc-
cupied the highest worldly position