phia; Frederick Hinckley, of Providence; Robert
Collyer, of New York, gave memorial sermons in their respective
churches.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XIII

MRS. STANTON'S REMINISCENCES.

PETERBORO, _December 1, 1855_.

ELIZABETH C. STANTON.--_My Dear Friend_:--The "Woman's Rights
Movement" has deeply interested your generous heart, and you have ever
been ready to serve it with your vigorous understanding. It is,
therefore, at the risk of appearing somewhat unkind and uncivil, that
I give my honest answer to your question. You would know why I have so
little faith in this movement. I reply, that it is not in the proper
hands; and that the proper hands are not yet to be found. The present
age, although in advance, of any former age, is, nevertheless, very
far from being sufficiently under the sway of reason to take up the
cause of woman, and carry it forward to success. A much stronger and
much more widely diffused common sense than has characterized any of
the generations, must play its mightiest artillery upon the stupendous
piles of nonsense, which tradition and chivalry and a misinterpreted
and superstitious Christianity have reared in the way of this cause,
ere woman can have the prospect of the recognition of her rights and
of her confessed equality with man.

The object of the "Woman's Rights Movement" is nothing less than to
recover the rights of woman--nothing less than to achieve her
independence. She is now the dependent of man; and, instead of rights,
she has but privileges--the mere concessions (always revocable and
always uncertain) of the other sex to her sex. I say nothing against
this object. It is as proper as it is great; and until it is realized,
woman can not be half herself, nor can man be half himself. I rejoice
in this object; and my sorrow is, that they, who are intent upon it,
are not capable of adjusting themselves to it--not high-souled enough
to consent to those changes and sacrifices in themselves, in their
positions and relations, essential to the attainment of this vital
object.

What if a nation in the heart of Europe were to adopt, and uniformly
adhere to, the practice of cutting off one of the hands of all their
new-born children? It would from this cause be reduced to poverty, to
helpless dependence upon the charity of surrounding nations, and to
just such a measure of privileges as they might see fit to allow i