Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-01
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
I. C.. M.

THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN. Mary
Wollstonecraft. THE SUBJECTION
OF WOMEN. John Stuart Mill.
Introduction by G. E. G. Catlin.
New York: Everyman's Library.
Edited by Ernest Rhys. Z. p. Dut-
ton g. Co.
In school days that story-poem
meant little. Its action was too dis
tant, too strange. Besides, there stood
in between q barricade of words, diff
cult to scale or TO dig through. Yet,
when one day q Lad of better gift than
ours stood and read in O swinging ardor
1.-The Prisoner Of Chillon." there wax
ened within US, within one certainly.
the sound Of marching feet far of,
the faint thud of drum. And above q
banner shone, gallant and gay. in sun
and wind. Then the picture gave way
to proper school tasks.
Years later when, one of the pack
in q personally conducted tour, peered
over shoulders and around backs into q
dark dungeon, its stone pillars fitted
with iron angle rings, even then Chillon
was hardly more to me than shudder
of distaste. The guide flashed his light
over a wall upon which. rudely carved,
stood two names-"Byron," Shelley"
Later. In the leisure Of home while
reducing the mad rush Of vacation to
q degree of order, came again upon
Chillon. This time, captured the
story Of Francois Bonivard, good prior
at Geneva who, over 800 years ago,
stood up for the people against the
Duke OF Savoy, to whom the people
were chattels whose treatment and dis
posal were entirely of his own choosing.
The answer of the duke to the prior
was the dungeon Of Chillon. the ankle
ring and chain. other bold. outSpeak-
ing men had known this prison, others
were yet to know 1t. 1t was the genius
of Byron that gave lasting life to Boni-
ward. 1t was the genius Of Byron that,
shrine toward which apostles Of free
dom have made q thousand pilgrimages
are still making them.
Byron, Shelley, Hugo, Dickens, Mi
rabeau. Franklin, Lincoln, Harriet
Beecher Stowe, Florence Nightingale,
Mary Wollstonecraft, Susan B. An
thony, many, many another stand with
these hosts Of protest against tyranny
In all of its forms. These are rebels.
These project every sort OF freedom
racial freedom, political equality, eco
nomic equity, social and individual IN
dependence. It Is long story. that OF
the urge toward human freedom. one
of the longest of human records, rising
periodically to heights that change. the
matter from chronicle to active revolu-
ton itself. In the maddle Of the last
century, or thereabout, all over Europe
there came to head one of these recur-
rences of rebellion-felt the world over.
And out of it emerged, alive and luSty,
the rise Of q new urge toward freedom
for women-just another phase OF the
general demand for wider Liberties 1or
the people as o whole.
This Is the place for Mary Wollstone-
craft and John Stuart Mill. doughty
fighters. both, for the plain logic as as
we'll as for the proved capacity OF
women to take on duties. political and
economic, that had, hitherto, been as
sumed by men alone as their exclusive
right.
Possessed, today, as women ere OF
equal political and economic privileges
with men, of even greater legal rights
and projections, It Is hard to realize
the situation of Mary Wollstonecraft
In her own day Of pioneering for won1-
en-. Yet. that which has been achieved
in this line goes back in large meas
ure and definite plan to this heroic
and fearless advocate. It seems TO me
that for a couple Of very good reasons
the study of THE Rights Of Women
is incumbent today upon the countless
beneficiaries of this particular womans
theory of equality between the sexes
and Of her exposition Of that theory.
The book stands as a substantial part
of the history Of woman's advance
toward political responsibility. 1t
gives evidence, as well, of the changed
attitude toward such advance in the
present, a gain not known in that earlier
day when this woman stood, target
for contumely and abuse. These are
the two reasons why the clearly enan-
cipated woman of the present will do
well to turn listening ear toward ire
middle of the last century when Mary
Wollstonecraft fought some Of the bat
ties that have opened up new day for
women.
Not easy reading, this early chapter
in freedom for women. 1t Is written In
the style, after the manner of 1850. and
thereabout. Ways Of writing change as
do bonnets and bustles. Nowadays, a
bonnet, or q hustle. Is absurd and in
considerable. So was much Of the
writing manner of the Victorian-high-
pitched to an oratorical tone, elabo-
rately buskined, so to speak, for tragic
struttings of the stage, almost melo-
dramatic in some Of its excuses. Yet,
this was the fashion when a truly great
band of writer's set down words that
will continue to delight the world for
some time to come, I take it. Under
the to-do Of composition here is a
woman tremendously in earnest, a
passionate woman, a fighting woman,
an uncomfortable one-for you, II not
for herself. An indiscreet woman. too
and, alas. it was the indiScretion OF
Mary Wollstonecraft that has so near
ly been her undoing with people who
are deeply sensitive to feminine be-
haviors, keenly censorious, too. Of de-
partures from the conventions set
around the female. Even in her own
day she was the ''hyena in petticoats, "
late Horace Walpole. To the gentle
Hannah More, as to many another,
Mary Wollstonecraft was an enigma,
therefore to be held to strict account
A literalist, this pioneer tried to live
some Of her theories. A fatal expert
ment, as time showed this adventurer
in the free life.
Yet. reading here, one is amazed at
the clear line Of thought discernible
under language much of which is
merely emotional extravaganza. Here
are plans Of education for women that
could not be surpassed to-day-cer.
tainly they have not been surpassed as
means OF intelligent and practical train
ing for every aspect Of the common
life-politics, industry, society, the
home. Not sex, but actual incapacity
alone, should disqualify women for
political and intellectual work, Is the
text of Mary Wollstonecraft's long series
of sermons and urgent methods Of prop
uganda. Not new, this. But instead
Of settling under the ineradicable dis
trust Of such inherent capacities as the
wise men of all ages had done, this