The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-05-24

NoH lot MIN the nlgnest commentator HoIu
sympathizers and also the profound respect OF
those who thoughtfully differ with his argu-
ment. The paper is here published for the
first time in its entirety.
The True Key to Progress.
Ideals change with all change in actual life.
Every step for ward in the active life of humanity
reacts upon the type of ideal that is worshiped !;
and in turn every thought that comes into
the world through some man who stands above
the level OF his time exerts lifting power upon
actual life. The ideal is 1t were the horizon or
the actual, the vision which is determined by the
place VIII ere we stand. Every step up the noun
tain extends the horizon in all directions, and this
in turn becomes stimulus TO fresh endeavor
At the same time there is a more permanent ele-
ment in the nature of ihe ideal and II Is better
test of the worth of the lie OF a man or an epoch
than the actual results accomplished. what man
is to-day is a mere passing shadow on the sun-dal
OF time while the ideal is the white light OF truth
which casts the shadow. The best key TO any man
is the thing which be really worships The ideal
he struggles after when he fails to attain IL,
tells of his life than the actual results he
reaches.
what I aspred to be and not may well COM
fort me-" We always right in idealizing a
ideal, which he forever is to be.
II is OF especial importance to recognize this
truth in studying the historic development of
ideals of womanhOod. Probably nothing else is so
true key to the progress of humanity as is the
change in these ideals In own epoch this
change has gone on with immense rapidity, and is
the most significant fact in modern life.
Marriage and the family relations vastly
more important to women than 10 men, Success
or failure in these relations means much more to
women, and they possess Jar less power 10 read
Just their lives
The difference in the importance of the family
relations 10 men ind women is due in part to
causes which lie in the very nature of life and
from which shall never escape. Motherhood
costs more, physically and mentally. than father
hood. and always must. The greater part OF the
burden OF reproduction and care OF offspring VIII
always rest upon women.
Nevertheless, the complete absorption of women
In the lie OF the family has been due In part to the
tape VI seH ueai ueNeloPeu anu perez , ~
natural selection in the past = an ideal which
changes with all change in the plane OF selection,
and hence is in no way permanent in life II be-
comes very important for to separate clearly
these two elements in the problem.
Progress Involves Greater disabilities.
1t is very difficult TO state the essential differ
ences between men and women and 10 see their
significance. Sex differentiation is only one
ample OF the general principle OF division of labor
or differentiation of function, the aim of which is al
ways economy and adaptation. The primitive
division in the spheres OF men and women is a sim
pie one; won en- are everywhere reproductive aud
industrial, and men productive and military.
In very early times there was comparative
equality in the spheres of men and women, which
gives place TO greater inequality certain stages
OF progress This is in harmony with the general
law of evolution. Progress involves great posi-
bllitieS for either higher adaptation degen
ton. Primitive life Don-moral in character and
can only become moral or immoral when a certain
measure Of DEVELOPMENT is attained. When we go
back to the Veddahs OF Ceylon we find them with
out our accomplishments and SINS" At inter
mediate stages of progress there is much more
evil, as there is greater positive excellence than in
very early conditions. Thus ind inequalities
of class and caste and various types OF tyranny
arising out of loose family and tribal conditions
similarly monogamy almost certainly precedes
polyamy and polyandry1n the evolution of mar
rlaSe Inc IDEA OF property grows with the early
progress of civilization. Inequality increases in
all sorts OF social and political conditions The
premium is placed upon brute force in the struggle
for existence: and thus he industrial functions are
dominated ty the military ones. Hence arises the
human history, they are treated merely as Prop
erty.
The story of the slow emancipation OF women is
painful one and is still unfinished. 1t may be
said in general that Just so far the industrial
~ -, as. &c Ecu rum tIle uoulhance OF
the military ones the emancipation of women has
progressed
The Women of Ancient Greece.
The ideal OF womanhood in early conditions was
purely industrial and reproductive. Marriage was
developed by naur al selection for Industrial econ
omy and the better care and protection OF of
spring Yet the close association Of two human
beings reacts upon the character and development
OF each. A relation which began as mere matter
OF instinct founded upon an industrial and repro
ductive basis became more and more a union
rounded in the permanent qualities of character.
The result is a vastly higher mea ming in the mar
rage union The moral meaning of any institu-
ion is its Influence upon the life and development
OF every individual affected by it.
We find these different principles struggling TO-
eetner IN the life OF ncent Greece in the PER- clean
age. In that epoch freemen lived a public life.
Inc political and military vocatons alone re-
spected. Women. on the other hand were con
fined strictly to a domestic life. They we're unedu-
csteo ana were rarely the intellectual com panions
OF their husbands. They were secluded almost as
strictly after marriage as before. 1t even CON
sldered indecent for wife TO sit table Will her
husba nd and one of his friends.
Greek men were however, developed 10 a point
where they craved intellectual companionship and
were capable of relations founded in the more per
manent qualities OF character. The result was
That friendships between men occupied most re-
InarKdDle place IN the Greek world a nd hav
fnrther that strange anomaly of Greek life the
these women were the intellectual companions of
cultivated men. When we remember that The
greatest statesman of ancient Greece made one ~
tnem MS wife, and that the noblest moral teacher
OF the pagan world took his pupils to converse with
another' we shall realize the respect in which they
were sometimes held.
This only means that when any considerable
advance in civilization has been attained some
women viii rebel against being kept In ignora nee
and servtude. But the freedom OF the few Greek
women who attained it gained at the expense
sacrifice must be avoided any high plane of
lie. The limitations in the development of creek
life of men, for the highest developme 4 of one
sex can never be attained without that of the
Later Ideals of womanhood.
Christianity brought a respect for womanboo1
which the ancient world had never known. The
worship OF the Virgin placed womanhood alto.
gether In a new light. Yet the gain was not un-
mixed with evil For the ideal worShiped was not
the human wife and mother but the negative and
ascetic ideal Of isolation from the world. The
purity reverenced was not the purity of virtue but
OF innocence. Marriage regarded as a con-
cession to the weakness of mankind.
Thus the medieval world elevated womanhood
but attached new sense OF degradation 10 the
normal relations of human life. Beside sainthood
and romantic chivalry we find widespread degra-
dauon in the lives of clergy and laity alike
Ihough marriage was made a sacrament It was
regarded as evil. How few of the Madonna faces
satisfy us with their negative innocence even in
me ART OF the Renaissance which greatly modi-
ned the medieval deal. The nobIest Of them Ali
the Sistine Madonna of Raphael, attains its mar.
Velous beauty OF the TRANSPORTATION of human
maidenhood and motherhood
Inc medieval ideal of womanhood was obviouslv
opposed TO natural selection and had inevitably TO
disappear. The woman capable of perpetuaiing
herself In offspring not the saint, but was still
the one willing 10 lose herself entirely in the mar
row circle of family relations - Vac ma
The dawn OF modern ideals of womanhood occprs
In the Renaissance companying the general ex-
pansion OF life. Almost everything characteristic
cally modern began in that time, and indeed onr
epoch Is really the last wave of the Renaissance
The Renaissance was has been well said,
1.-THE rediscovery of man and nature" Men turned
to the more positive ideals of the ancient world
and loved the beauty of life and its realization here
in the belief that the best life here certainly
lead 10 the best in any possible future world. No
other epoch in the history of the world shows so
marvellous and rich development of individual