al--than any that the sages and
philosophers of former times have ever dreamed of. Therefore I shall not
touch upon the subject of men's being most easily influenced by
considerations of what is most agreeable and profitable for _them_; I
shall simply assume that they _are_ so influenced, and I shall say to
them that our cause would long ago have been gained if their vision were
not so dim, so veiled, even in matters in which their own interests are
concerned. If they had the same quick sight as women, if they had the
intelligence of the heart, the world would be very different now; and I
assure you that half the bitterness of our lot is to see so clearly and
not to be able to do! Good gentlemen all, if I could make you believe
how much brighter and fairer and sweeter the garden of life would be for
you, if you would only let us help you to keep it in order! You would
like so much better to walk there, and you would find grass and trees
and flowers that would make you think you were in Eden. That is what I
should like to press home to each of you, personally, individually--to
give him the vision of the world as it hangs perpetually before me,
redeemed, transfigured, by a new moral tone. There would be generosity,
tenderness, sympathy, where there is now only brute force and sordid
rivalry. But you really do strike me as stupid even about your own
welfare! Some of you say that we have already all the influence we can
possibly require, and talk as if we ought to be grateful that we are
allowed even to breathe. Pray, who shall judge what we require if not we
ourselves? We require simply freedom; we require the lid to be taken off
the box in which we have been kept for centuries. You say it's a very
comfortable, cozy, convenient box, with nice glass sides, so that we can
see out, and that all that's wanted is to give another quiet turn to the
key. That is very easily answered. Good gentlemen, you have never been
in the box, and you haven't the least idea how it feels!"

The historian who has gathered these documents together does not deem it
necessary to give a larger specimen of Verena's eloquence, especially as
Basil Ransom, through whose ears we are listening to it, arrived, at
this point, at a definite conclusion. He had taken her measure as a
public speaker, judged her importance in the field of discussion, the
cause of reform. Her speech, in itself, had about the value of a pretty
essay, committed to memory and deliver