of the
spirit? When once true confidence is lost, the sublime and exalted
character of the relation is destroyed. There is no longer any genuine
affection, or real union of heart, between the parties. Nothing will
destroy mutual confidence between two parties sooner than an arrogant
assumption by one of them of fancied superiority over the other.
Self-respect is an inherent principle in human nature. The mind of
prince and peasant is alike actuated by it, and by an instinctive desire
for freedom and independence of action, for the advantages of civil and
religious liberty, and for the exercise of individual rights; and this
instinctive desire is no less strong in the hearts of women than of
men. It is impossible for a woman of proper discernment, and of refined
taste and liberal education, to consider herself, simply because of her
sex, inferior to her own male relatives, or indeed to any one of the
opposite sex, of the same intellectual powers, literary attainments, and
position in society. Nothing but the influence of a misdirected or
perverted education, or the most extreme degradation and ignorance, can
in any one induce the belief that woman is the inferior of man, merely
_because she is a woman_.

No business firm could remain together in harmony for a single day, if
it were understood that one of the partners assumed the position that he
was superior to the other, who, prior to entering into the partnership,
had been received in the same social circles, and who had brought into
the business an equal proportion of funds and of business talent. And
doubly preposterous would the assumption be, if it were based on the
fact that the assumer was the larger or physically stronger man; and,
because possessed of more of the animal nature than his partner, it
therefore became his right to dictate to and control the other.

Such an assumption as this is no more absurd, nor is the reasoning upon
which it is based more illogical, than that which asserts that woman,
because she is a woman, is therefore an inferior, to be ruled at the
discretion of her husband or sons in her own home; and that she ought to
be contented to be considered such, and to be so treated by her own
nation and in her own family. The carrying out of such an idea is more
than absurd. It is monstrous. It is an imposition that has only been
tolerated because the exactions are not in every case so bad as the
system is capable of enforcing; and it is one from