The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-26

one of his bitterest animadversions upon the
sins OF society, this finale: "But the
greatest OF all these is the sin and grief of
ignorance" Upon this predicate, and consid-
ering how difficult it is to know everything
even to know one thing well-the doctrine of
original sin and OF total depravity does not
seem so questionable as it might. But, hap
PLY, not every writer on ethics takes such
strong ground as Carlyle.
As we cannot know everything, the question
arises concerning what is most important to
know The ancients represented truth as being
found IN the bottom of we'll, and very deep
one at that 1t was to be studied, as they
the earth, which reflected only the stars and
their movements. 1t was not every one could
have Truths well or a subterranean observa-
tory, and SO few became philosophers or astron-
omers, and ignorance was the popular condi-
ton.
OF this condition the "wise men" took adj
vantage, leading the multitude whittier thew
pleased. They invented religions andt made
laws for the common people which they them
selves disregarded, while seeming to conform
to them in order to control the populace. 1t is
not so very different in our time Law and
religion have usually been behind the best in
telligence OF the age; the best intelligence con-
forming outwardly to both. rather than extend
to Ignorance liberty of action it assumed for
itself. 1t is this self-denial which conserves
society in all ages
But to get back to the proposition that ignor-
ance is sin. l wish to submit another that
ignorance is not innocence. Innocence is free
dom from sin. not freedom from knowledge
knowing of sin, yet from choice pursues the
paths of virtuous living. Such person is in
little danger of falling into evil, because
knowledge bars the way; while he or she who
is spotless through innocence which comes
from ignorance, is in constant peril of false
step.
Evidently the guilt and punishment which
attaches to the errors of ignorance, OF the yio-
latlon OF intelligent consciousness, should cor
respond to that knowledge or that want of
knowledge: Yet nature takes no account of the
ln,,ct hill ftx-
society afford to encourage ignorance by con-
don1ng lis errors, and has therefore to punish
the only half-conscious criminal as severely as
the most 1ntelllgent-Often more so because
intelligence assists the guilty to escape.
We all have heard that the attraction of the
sexes for each other is the influence which,
more than any other, has made the history as
well as the poetry, OF the world. That
it should be thought worthy of serious
consideration co Is evident from the fact
our being, of the family, OF the home and of all
the amenities of life. OF what do we as women
need knowledge more than of this? Yet how
baldest untruths; in maidenhood we have
our natural and very proper desire to know
more about ourselves checked, and are made
suspicious or ashamed of ourselves by the pc
culiar mystery thrown around our being.
know OF no more painful humiliation than
that which an ignorant girl suffers when she
she is made q wife. What justice is there in
making her suffer these shocks, or what profit
to any one is this ignorance of the fundamental
laws OF her being? There should be no mystery,
more than ordinary delicacy would impart to
matters SO purely personal. The girl should
be conscientiously prepared for the physical
life before her by a knowledge of the meant ng
underlying the facts of her being. 1t is cruelty
unfair to her to leave her in ignorance OF any
thing. which SO vitality concerns her as the
knowledge OF physiology, and especially of
those laws which relate to married life.
Maidenly purity! The phrase means usually a
condition OF complete ignorance-such ignor-
ance as is q sin. Does the sneerer remark that
in these days the old fashioned purity is not to
be found? Whose fault is that? If the mothers
had done their duty by their daughters, the
motive to the prurient curiosity which has re.
suited in false ideas and injurious beliefs would
not have existed.
But it is not our sex alone which it is wrong
to leave uninstructed. The boy, even more
than the girl, needs educating in the laws of his
being, yet the lips of both mother and father
are sealed. The boys learn q great deal in
other ways, but what ways? Could parents
commit worse error than to leave their sons
to CLEAN knowledge from indecent publications
and chance associates? Again, if the son be-
comes profigate, his errors are condoned be-
cause it does not hurt a mans standing to be
known to have sullied his own purity or the
purity of some. unprotected girl, though the
girl may have lost her home, her happiness
and even her life in consequence. To the man
it was only passing experience, and to quiet
any gossip about himself he very likely