Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial. (Wilmington, Del.) 1878-1928, 1920-07-31

1t is particularly appropriate that
one of the publications If the Nassar
Scmi~C Centennial Series should be dc
voted 90 the study Of feminism. In The
Learned Lady in England, i650-l76D
iHourhtnn NifFln Company Miss
hyra REYNOLDS has assembled goodly
company Of learned women and pre-
sented them 10 Us for our inspection.
II IL not the authors purpose 20 attempt
any valuation Of their scholastic, scientific
or literary work She wishes rather 10
show "the number Of women, whose in
terests were intellectual, whose cboSen
pursuits bad 20 do with books and things
Of the mind and who we're demanding a
new freedom Of self-espression, new tfain-
ing and new opportunities"
II is perhaps unfortunate that Miss
Reynolds has contented herself with
merely showing US through the gallery
The laxative guide who insists on cali
ing our attention 30 the insolubility Of
The Mona Lisa smile ought Of course
20 be vigorously suppressed But there
~ a limit IN the other direction. The
antique dealer who answers all our qles-
tions in uononyllables very soon puts a
damper on our enthusiasm. That old
print that VIC might have bought u left
dealer would not take lt down and talk
about it
Miss Reynolds rather reminds us Of
The uncommunicative antique dealer
Che dcvotes more than hslf the book
20 the biographical details n some fifty
10 hundred learned ladies, b,It M reader
is entirely satisfied with sumptuous
catalogue. however accurately and care
fully Il il compiled We want 70 know
something Of the relative Importance of
the learned women Miss Reynolds has
enumerated. We should not mind even
If the author occasionally took ~ the
ctidgels in favor Of some forgotten blue
stocking Above all we should like ~ know
how the learned ladies If the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries paved tho way
for the emancipated woman Of today.
Orr complaint with NIss REYNOLDS
scholarly work may possibly be n con-
fezsion a our own weakness We find
ourselves longing for an infusion o. Ma
csulay'a opckuireness Macaulay might
not have told us - much about each
individual lady. but We should have known
far more about their general contribution
tn learning. He would have swept us
along with that ringing emphasis that
always carries conviction and before the
end II the book we should have been pre-
pared ~ swear that the modern doctrine
If wornens rights was entirely due 70
Some obscure seventeenth century pam
phlrt that he bad discovered.
Mws Reynolds. however, adopts a
very different historical method. There
was no steady growth ~ learning among
women during the period ~ which she
writes The beginnings a the new ideals
for women were so modest and unsss,im-
ing. so casual and uneclf-consciouz that
nj tho time they oouid hardly be recogniz-
ed az beginnings. The author - conse-
q,rentlY unable 10 argue her case from one
point n another as Macaulav might
have done. As she saws IN the excellent
summary at the end Of the book. What
was actually accomplished in the century
before 1880 was a lavish sowing Of seed
a steady infiltration Of new ideas, break
ing up Of old certaintIes "a IN woman $
place in domestic and civil life, and m
accumulation OF examples proving women
capable Of the most varied intellectual
aptItudes and energies
One Of the old certaintses. however
which was never questioned even by
the most advanced women Of the period
was the divinely ordained superiority of
the male. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
and Mary Astell, two Of the most adj
vanoed women of their day, would have
been Mortified at any suggestion Of women