e, however, the women of our land were concerned with
national rather than sexual questions. Indeed, the physiological
argument never took root among the theories of women when they discussed
their place in the scheme of creation; but the mental argument, the
position that women were in all mental attributes equal to men and
therefore should be possessed of equal rights, proved to be seed sown in
good ground. Time was needed for its development into the grain of
general or even partial acceptance; but it grew and was even then
growing, even if not directly under the fostering of the author of
_Woman and Her Era_.

Already there had been more than whispers of such theories. As is
usually the case, the first movements were clumsy and ill-directed and
were too radical to hope for general popularity even among those whom
they were intended to benefit. There had been among certain disgruntled
women a movement toward "dress reform"--not, however, having as its end
aesthetic or even sanitary considerations, but merely an assertion, of
strange and even ridiculous nature, of equality with the men. Even
before Miss Farnham had uttered her call to battle there had come into
existence those strange bifurcated garments called "bloomers," though
their adoption had been limited to very few indeed among the women of
our land. Moreover, nearly fifteen years prior to the appearance of Miss
Farnham's book, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had signed a
summons to the first "Woman's Rights" convention, which was held at the
home of Mrs. Stanton, at Seneca Falls, New York. On this occasion was
made the first formal claim for suffrage on the part of women; but the
movement accomplished little and was rather suggestive than effective.

The female suffragists had accomplished nothing at this time; they had
not even influenced the general thought of their sex, and such works as
that of Miss Farnham--the most radical and yet representative in its
theories and therefore selected as typical--were as few as ineffective.
The failure of the movement to spread beyond a few rabid enthusiasts was
doubtless because of its radicalness of theory; it was not content,
being in this respect like almost all new movements, to make gradual
progress, but must upset established institutions, both domestic and
political, at a blow. Therefore it won from all sensible people either
ridicule or neglect; it made no more real headway than had the sporadic
outbur