muscle, nor can it ever again become so.

The woman of the future can no more be remanded to the merely patient
plodder in kitchen and nursery, with no horizon but the cook-stove and
cradle illuminated by the weekly church service, than the lightning
printing-press of to-day can be remanded to the clumsy instrument of a
century ago, or the electric light to the tallow dip.

If the demand of woman for equal opportunity to win all the prizes of
life, and to control her special function, involving the most serious
and sacred responsibilities to the race, and the necessity of her own
growth and advancement,--if this new demand is one that is not worthy
the consent and co-operation of men and institutions, the mistake was
fatal which permitted her to learn the alphabet.

This mistake, if mistake it was, has extended its mighty influence in
widening circles through the past three centuries. Francois Saintonge,
a young widow of France, toward the close of the sixteenth century,
obtained the consent of her father to teach some girls to read if she
would give her lessons at five o'clock in the morning. Without bed,
bread, or fire, she and her five pupils stayed the first night in the
house for which the only fifty pounds she possessed were paid.
Simultaneously a young girl in Italy made an effort to set in motion
the brain cells of the girls of her country by giving them a chance to
learn the alphabet.

The heroic courage of women in striving to attain the weapons of
intelligence affords evidence of the invincible proceeding of
evolution inherent in the constitution of humanity.

The woman movement is demonstration of the power of thought beyond the
power of muscle; it is evidence that the intangible forces of mind are
superior to the external material powers of muscle, and sword, and
bullet. It is reassuring to forecast that, spite of the present
inefficacy, or but very limited success of woman's protest against
barbarous laws and usages, and the destructive errors and vices of the
degree of civilization we have reached, the protest is a prophecy that
the moral elevation of the race is to be the result of woman's
increased intelligence and equipment, and of her ascent to the full
proportions of womanhood.

As a builder of material structures and enterprises, man is a superb
success. The bridge, the triumphs of architecture, the steam engine,
the almost intelligent machine are marvellous manifestations of
inventive geniu