The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-10-29

scholar is not, and never will be wide
enough to blot out from remembrance
his brutal phrase on hearing of the
death of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Mrs. Browning is dead. Thank God
we shall have no more Aurora
Leighs."
While. far more creditab1e to Alger-
non Charles Swineburne than his
phrase of himself now unfortunately
affixed to the newly collected edition
of his works, is the praise he be-
slows on this noble woman-genf in
his preface to her great poem. I quote
one line of it here
No English contemporary poet by
profession has left US work so full of
living fire.
For once. and in this particular in
stance, Accused Eve in literature has,
in such a verdict. won her merited
literary hOnOrS.
But as a rule honors are withheld
from her, and the laurel is fIched
from her brows by Coward Adam ere
she has time to wear it. One fragrant
case is well known, Of a man who hav-
ing lived entirely on a Woman's liter
| airy earnings for years, went about in
the clothes her pen had paid for,
among the persons to whom, through
her influence, he had been introduced,
boasting that he assisted her to write
the greater part of her books. To
their shame be it said, a great many
people believed him, and not until he
was dead, and the woman went on
writing her books as before, did they
even begin to see the wrong they had
done her. They would not have dared
to calumniate the false bOaster as they
illuminated the innocent hard worker.
The bOaster was man,-the worker
was a woman-therefore the dishonor
( of passing off literary work not ones
! own must naturally belong to Ac-
| cursed Eve, so they thOughts-not to
/ Coward Adam! Of their humiliation
when all the truth was known, his
/ tory sayeth nothing.
| Yet with all the weight of her curse
more or less upon her, and with all
! her sorrows, shattered ideals, wrecked
/ hopes, and lost loves, Accused Eve is
still the most beautiful, the most per-
/ feet figure in all creation. Her fail
| ings, her vanities her weaknesses, her
sins, arise in the first place from love
even if afterwards, through Cow
/ ard Adams ready encOurag cement they
( degenerate into vice and animalism
Her first impulse in earliest youth is
/ desire to please Adam,-the same i'm
pulse precisely which led her to Of
fer him the forbidden apple in the
first days of their mutual acquaint-
ance She wishes to charm him.-tO
/ win his heart,-to endear herself to
! him in a thousand tender WayS,-tO
! wind herself irretrievably around his
! life. If she succeeds in this aim, she
| is invaFiab happy and Virtuous But
! if she is made to feel that she cannot
hold him on whom her thoughts are
centred,-if his professed love for her
/ only proves weak and false when put
to trial,-if he finds it easy to forget
both sentiment and courtesy, and is
quick to add insult to injury, then all
the finer and more delicate emotions
of her nature become warped and I'M
strung,-and though she endured her
suffering because she must, she re-
sents it and takes vengeance when she
can. Of resentfulness against wrong
and revenge for injustice come what
are called bad women
Yet I would humbly venture to
maintain that even these bad were
not bad in the first instance. They
were born in the usual way, with the
4 usual Eve impulse,-the desire to
please, not themselves, but the oppo-
site sex. If their instructive efforts
have been met with cruelty, oppres-
sion, neglect, desertion and sometimes
the most heartless and cowardIy be-
trayal, they can scarcely be blamed If
they play the same tricks on the un-
loving, disloyal churls for whom they
have perhaps sacrificed the best part
of their lives. For innocent faith and
trusting love are the best part of every
woman's life; and when these are de-
stroyed by the brutalizing touch of
some Coward Adam, the woman may
Wei claim compensation for her