The Haslingden Gazette. — 1910-04-23 (Haslingden, Lancashire, England)

LADY COOK._nee_TENNESSEE C.  CLAFLIN )  It vvaa Eoaid by an excellent divine, that, though semaalblyort''37hreerreie% hare abrundanmceadeofin"tte world oogofnits " left behind. It has pleaQed men to arrogate to themselves nearly the whole of human courage, and to regard women no very timid and cowardly creature when oorripared with themselves.  Now we do not deny that some women occasionally have little affectations which giro a colour to this opinion. They are soared at meeting harm. less cows or oxen, as though they were ferocious bulk 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 exadle 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 "atiimal, naturally not rapacious, loves peace and quiet, and he would never fight, if nobody soffended him, and he could have what he fights for without it" This may be true of man as a savage: But civilisation gives so much skill and dissipates so many errors and terrors that men have learnt to be quarrelsome, courageous, slid self-rollant. It would be natural to suppose' the mothers and • - tern of brave men would be, brave also We look for cognate qualities in both sexes of other 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 stupendous MU-conceit 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 them vast superi, ority. But, whenever women have had equal op-1 Rottunities, they have proved themselves no despicable competitors with men in physical courage, and far ahead of them in moral fearlessnees. 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 profitahlo to draw attention to the bravery of women. ' 1111 is do not desire to under-value the conspicuous valour of men. On the contrary, we are proud so recognise it to the full. We only wish to point •iiit that women are capable of the same great quality to a profitable degree, and that, therefore, it should be encouraged in them as well as an men. If the men refuse, let women exhort each .other. 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 S t ron ge r morally and women physioally. A modern historian says, "Moral and rational faculties may alike be dormant, and they will certainly be so if men are wholly immersed in the gratification of their senses. Man is like a plant, which requires a favourable soil for the full expansion of its natural or innate powers." If men had been shut out, as women have, from the exercise of their physical faculties, is it certain they would have developed excess of physical powers! Notwithstanding her social disadvantages this oworeffLP:ebnzia,etv. terrw.::::naerainnHelihss,atops,or,:y; ti:aoydffneo.: affords eas then,,tshnaart numerousot,inof taslletaeivai:arr.ntinpihaalues.lts we can only note a few.  Lena 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 Ea-tern Empire; Artemisia drank the ashes of her consort : Camilla, Queen of the Volscians. was slain fighting at th head of her troops; Boadicea encountered th veterans of Rome: the Maid of Orleans, drove the English from France: Arria 'tabbed herself to encourage her husband to die. 'Se. it doeo not hurt, dear Pietus," she said.  , The tales of martyrdom are, fertile of heroin 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 the Bishops, under the Inquisition, or the French Revolutionariee, 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 la:, their fair nerd:a upon the block. Even thy fearless Raleigh; suffers by oornpariKin, for their queenly dignity excelled his half-jocuiar carelessness.  When sce come to physdcal self-sacrifice. to diving 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 %sounded 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 frehly tries to do by calculation.  But it is in moral courage that woman shines. Just as the greater strength and training of man make him physically superior, so the moral strength and training of woman make 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 touch man's moral superior. Mandeville thought it was because her brain was more accurately balanced. We think, however, that it is largely owing to a higher standard of moral conduct having been constantly demanded from her from remotest times. But she must insist upon further physical advancement, and man should look to his morals, that sexual harmony may result. It is no wonder that the cowards and narrowhearted among the men are bitterly opposed to the "New Woman." They see "the rod of empire" slipping from their grasp, and feel that their 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 snore rapidly than the men's. Altogether, the outlook, assures us of sexual equality at ho far distant date.. Whenever it arrives, it, will give a universal iniretus to progress, and mark a new and happier era for humanity, for right, not might, will govern, and the worthiest wear the crown. The brave women of the past and present will then be revered as the daring pioneers in the diseovery of a New Heaven and a New Earth.