eakness it leaves behind; even when we
say, "Hands off!" the sufferer does not rise. In such a case, there is but
one counsel worth giving. More depends on determination than even on
ability. Will, not talent, governs the world. Who believed that a poetess
could ever be more than an Annot Lyle of the harp, to soothe with sweet
melodies the leisure of her lord, until in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's
hands the thing became a trumpet? Where are gone the sneers with which
army surgeons and parliamentary orators opposed Mr. Sidney Herbert's first
proposition to send Florence Nightingale to the Crimea? In how many towns
was the current of popular prejudice against female orators reversed by
one winning speech from Lucy Stone! Where no logic can prevail, success
silences. First give woman, if you dare, the alphabet, then summon her to
her career: and though men, ignorant and prejudiced, may oppose its
beginnings, they will at last fling around her conquering footsteps more
lavish praises than ever greeted the opera's idol,--more perfumed flowers
than ever wooed, with intoxicating fragrance, the fairest butterfly of the
ball-room.

[Footnote 1: _Projet d'une loi portant defense d'apprendre a lire aux
femmes._]

II

PHYSIOLOGY

"Allein, bevor und nachdem man Mutter ist, ist Man ein Mensch; die
muetterliche Bestimmung aber, oder gar die heeliche, kann nicht die
menschliche ueberwiegen oder ersetzen, sondern sie muss das Mittel,
nicht der Zweck derselben sein."--J.P.F. Richter: Levana, sec. 89.

"But, before and after being a mother, one is a human being; and
neither the motherly nor the wifely destination can overbalance or
replace the human, but must become its means, not its end."

TOO MUCH NATURAL HISTORY

Lord Melbourne, speaking of the fine ladies in London who were fond of
talking about their ailments, used to complain that they gave him too much
of their natural history. There are a good many writers--usually men--who,
with the best intentions, discuss woman as if she had merely a physical
organization, and as if she existed only for one object, the production and
rearing of children. Against this some protest may well be made.

Doubtless there are few things more important to a community than the
health of its women. The Sandwich Island proverb says:--

"If strong is the frame of the mother,
The son will give laws to the people."

And, in nations where all men give laws