e
speak, when occasion suits, quite eloquently, often with indecorous
flippancy, of the "great influence which the _ladies_ are capable of
exerting upon society;" and for the qualified good which the orators
graciously concede that women have accomplished, or may be capable of
accomplishing, they bespatter them with a sort of sneering praise that
is absolutely insulting to a woman of common sense. This style of
fulsome flattery, with some degree of soft attention, graciously
bestowed upon women, these men deem adequate compensation for all the
indignities put upon their so-called inferiors. With what supreme
contempt, therefore, must every right-minded woman listen to such
harangues, or read them when in print!

Learned orators and divines and grave professors may, indeed sometimes
do, soar away almost to the seventh heaven while recounting the heroic
or generous actions of women in past ages. Admiring audiences are told
that "gentle women are the ministering angels, sent by the wisdom of God
to be the comforters of mankind upon earth, as the beloved of our
hearths and homes; that the world, without the gentle hand of woman to
alleviate our sorrows, would be a dark and dreary solitude swept by the
whirlwinds of despair." The delighted listeners are borne away on the
wings of fancy--alas! it is only fancy--till, in imagination, it would
appear that woman had escaped from her worse than Egyptian bondage, had
crossed, without trouble, the Red Sea, passed the dreadful wilderness,
moved out from the plains of Moab, and, by some peculiar magic of her
own, had been deftly wafted over Jordan into the promised land; that
already she had gloried in the tumbling-down of the walls of Jericho,
and had enjoyed the triumph of having the delegation of Gibeonites
coming, in their old garments, to seek an alliance with her as the
chosen of the Lord.

But let a woman allured by such an oration ask a _right_, and how soon
the strain is changed! Let her ask to be placed on an equality with man
in regard to the holding of property, or to civil or ecclesiastical
rights, or authority or position; let the daughters ask equal rights and
privileges with sons; let them request admission into the same colleges
and universities with their brothers, so that they may compete with them
for the honors and degrees conferred in such institutions,--and what
then? The flowery oratory is all gone. The "angels," the "heroic, brave,
and virtuous women," have