The Northern Guardian. — 1895-03-18 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

TENNESSEE C. CLAFLIN.] It was said by an excellent divine, "That though many discoveries have been made in the world of self-love, there is yet abundance of 'terra incognita' left behind." It has pleased men to arrogate to themselves nearly the whole of human courage and to regard women as very timid and cowardly creatures when compared with themselves. Now, we do not deny that some women occasionally have little affectations which give a colour to this opinion. These are scared at meeting harmless cows or oxen as though they were ferocious bulls. They jump in terror on a chair at the sight of a mouse. All these, however, are errors of education, just as boys are taught from the cradle to despise girls for their supposed want of bravery, and grow to manhood without seeing their mistake. Yet Mandeville, in his "Search into the Nature of Society," avers that , "Man, as he is a fearful animal, naturally not rapacious, loves peace and quiet, and he would never , fight if nobodyoffended him and he could have what lie fights for without it." This may be true of man as a savage. But civilization gives so much skill and dissipates so many errors and terrors that men have learnt to be quarrelsome, courageous, and self-reliant. It would be natural to suppose the mothers and sisters of brave men would be brave also. We look for cognate qualities in both sexes of animals, and are not disappointed. Why should mankind be an exception? Why should it be imagined that men have all the courage and women a monopoly of timidity? Simply because of men's selfoonceit. The majority have never given the subject a rational thought. They have excluded women from their own favourite fields for the display of bravery, and then pride themselves upon their vast superiority. But, whenever women have had equal opportunities, they have proved themselves no despicable competitors with men in physical courage, and far ahead of them in moral fearlessness.  - At a time like the present, when public attention is largely drawn to a comparative view of the qualities of both sexes, it may be profitable to draw attention to the bravery of women. We do not desire to undervalue the conspicuous valour of men. On the contrary, we are proud to recognise it to the full. We only wish to point out that women are capable of the same great quality to a profitable degree, and that it should be encouraged in them as well as in men.  No one can doubt that moral courage is superior to physical. Men exceed in the latter, women in the former, and it is not desirable that this should be altered even were it possible. Yet it would add to the dignity of both if men were stronger morally and women physically. Nothwithstanding her social disadvantages in this respect, woman has made her mark in the annals of bravery. History affords numerous examples of great heroines, many of them, too, at a time when her general position was that of a slave, but we can only note a few. Leona of Attica bore the severest torture without a word. Telesilla, the poetess, made the Argolic women fearless of death, and discomfited the Spartans. Theodora saved the Eastern Empire. Artomisia drank the ashes of her consort. Camilla, Queen of the Volscians, was slain fighting at the head of her troops. Boadicea encountered the veterans of Rome. The Maid of Orleans drove the English from France. Arria stabbed herself to encourage her husband to die. "See, it does not hurt, dear Paetus," she said. The tales of martyrdom are fertile of heroic women. Young maidens met the most horrible deaths with placid contempt, if not with vehement joy. No fiendish tortures that devils could devise were able to shake the fortitude of numberless brave women. Whether under Nero or the bishops, under the Inquisition or the French revolutionaries, it was noted with surprise and admiration that the women died more bravely than the men. With what grace and calmness and infinite tenderness for others did Anne Boleyn and Mary of Scotland lay their fair necks upon the block. Even the fearless Raleigh suffers by comparison, for their queenly dignity excelled his half-jocular carelessness. When we come to physical self-sacrifice, to giving one's life to save the most dear to us, women stand almost alone. Whether to suck a poisoned wound, or to intervene and receive the assassin's dagger, or to nurse the wounded in the midst of battle, or to watch by the couch of pestilence and death, or to commit suicide to save their own and their husbands' honour, they have acted without a parallel on the part of men. Woman's love is stronger than her fears, and there is no sacrifice which she will not cheerfully make for him who sways her heart. What she does by impulse man feebly tries to do by calculation. . .  But it is in moral courage that woman shines. Just as the greater strength and training of man makes him physically superior, 90 the moral strength and training of woman makes him morally her inferior. In loyalty, truthfulness, chastity, fidelity, pity, sobriety, honesty, and general perseverance in well-doing, she is immeasurably above him. This has been noticed by great writers in every age, and it would not be difficult to discover why she is so much man's moral superior. We think it is largely owing to a higher standard of moral conduct having been constantly demanded from her from remotest times.  It is no wonder that the narrow-hearted among the men are bitterly opposed to the "New Woman.'' They see "the rod of empire" slipping from their grasp, and feel that brute force and cunning cannot save them. Women are already men's moral superiors, and are fast becoming their intellectual equals. Their physique is improving more rapidly than the men's. Altogether, the outlook assures us of equality of the sexes at no far distant date. Whenever it arrives it will give a universal impetus to progress, and mark a new and happier era for humanity ; for right, not might, will govern, and the worthiest wear the crown.