Year: 1874

Situation.


That woman has not competed with


men in the active work of life was pro-


baby because, not having mad the pow


er, she had not the desire to do so, and


because, having the capacity of func-
| tions which man has not, she has found


her pleasure in performing them. 1t is


not simply that man, being stronger in


body than she is, has held her in sub
| lection, and debarred her from careers


of ection which lie was resolved to keep


for himself; her maternal functions


must always have rendered, and must
! continue to render, most of her activity
domestic. There have been times


enough in the history of the world,


when the freedom which she has had,
and the position which she has held in


the estimation of men, would have en-
abled her to assert her claims to other
| functions, had she so willad it. The


most earnest advocate of her rights to
| be something else than what she has
hitherto been, would hardly argue that
she has always been in the position of a
slave kept in forCible stbjection by the
superior physical force of men. As
suredly, if she has been slave, she has
been a slave content with her bondage.
But it may, perhaps, be said that in
that lies the very pith of the matter
that she is not free, and does not care
to be free; that she is a slave, and does
not know or feel it, 1t may be alleged
that she has lived for so many ages in
the position of dependence, to which
she was originally reduced by the supe-
rior muscular strength of man, has
been so thoroughly imbued with inher-
tied habits of submission, and over
awed by the influence of customs never
questioned, that she has not the desire for
emancipation that thus a moral bond
age has been established, more effectual
than an actual physical bondage.


It would be rash to assert that there
is not some measure of truth in these
arguments. Let any one who thinks
otherwise reflect upon the degraded |
condition of women in Turkey, where |
habit is so ingrained in their nature,
and custom so powerful over the mind, |
that they have neither thought nor de- |
sire to attain to a higher state, and |
"naught feel their foul disgrace :"
striking illustration how women may be |
demoralized and yet not know nor feel |
it. and an instructive lesson for those |



ment upon the merits of the movement |
for promoting their higher education
and the removal of the legal disabilities
under which they labor. 1t is hardly
possible to exaggerate the effects of the
laws and usages of country upon the
habits of thought of those who, gener
alton after generation, have been born
and bred, and have lived under them.
Il,,4 foIr n
would be no less a mistake in an OppO-
site direction to allow no weight to such
an argument? Setting physiological
to suppose that the whole explanation
of woman's position and character is
that man, having in the beginning found
her pleasing in his eyes and necessary
to his enjoyment, took fOrcible posses
sion of her, and has ever since kept her
in bondage, without any other iustifca-
tion than the right of the strongest.
Superiority of muscular strength, with
out superiority of any other kind, would
not have done that any more than SUI
perioritv of muscular strength has avail
I'd to give the lion or the elephant the
possession of the earth. If it were not
that woman's organization and functions
fOund their nttlng nome III pOSlUlOn
from, if not subordinate to,
hat of men, she would not so long
nave kept that position. If she is to be
judged by the same standard as men,
and to make,their aims her aims, we are
bound to say that she labors
1nder an inferiority of constitution by
dispensation which there is no gain
saying. This is a matter of physiology,
lot a matter of sentiment. F0rtnightiy
ReUieaO.