ndition of
infidelity by a little French treatise, _Le Mal qu'on dit des Femmes_. I
give him over to it. His doctrine, like unwholesome food, carries its
punishment with it. But you, Hipparchia, have pulled woman to pieces for
a purpose; and I should like to know on what practicable principle you
propose to make her over again.

_Hipparchia._ Some one said wittily,--I think it was Mrs. Howe,--"Man
carves his destiny; woman is helped to hers." Women have been kept so
long in this state of dependence, that their characters have become
dwarfed. The thirst for excitement that drives them restless from one
amusement to another, and which finds relief in the extravagances of
dress,--this passionate devotion to the frivolous and the
absurd,--spring from the want of a reasonable employment for mind and
body. My great principle is to exchange their passive condition for an
active one. I would establish schools, where girls may receive a
thorough education, such as is given to boys. In these schools, I should
insist upon mathematical training as earnestly as Plato in his Republic.
Women must be made to feel the magical power that numbers have in
regulating the mind. Once get them really to believe that twice two make
four, and can never make more or less,--once bring them to feel that a
foot always means twelve inches, and that correct measurement is
indispensable, even for seamstresses and cooks,--and the spirit of
accuracy which now passes all their understanding will be with them and
remain with them forever. Next, I should insist that the employments now
monopolized by men should be thrown open to women. Why should we be
excluded from all the well-paid trades and professions? Why should we
not hold office, "commissioned, paid, and uniformed by the state"? Do
you think it fair to limit us to scrubbing and plain-sewing as the only
means of earning a livelihood?

_Aristippus._ I admit that many occupations for which women are
admirably calculated are carried on by men, and I hope that some day a
more manly public opinion will make all such persons as ridiculous as a
male seamstress is now. I do not envy the feelings of men who can
invent, manufacture or sell baby-jumpers, dress elevators, hoop-skirts,
or those cosmetics I see "indorsed by pure and high-toned females." But
when you and your friend seek the positions of "night-patrols or
inspectors of police," you run into ultraism, the parent of all _isms_;
but, luckily a paren