d
the great change in our legislation on all the property-rights of that
sex is just as directly traceable to their labors as is the repeal of
the English corn-laws to the efforts of the "League." If, however,
"Jennie" consoles herself with the reflection that the points made in
this controversy by the authors of "Hannah Thurston" and "Miss Gilbert's
Career" are not much stronger than her own, she must remember her
favorite theory, that all foolishness sounds more respectable when
uttered from masculine lips.

1. _Woman and her Era._ By ELIZA W. FARNHAM. In Two Volumes. New York:
A. J. Davis & Co.

2. _Eliza Woodson; or, The Early Days of one of the World's Workers._ A
Story of American Life. New York: A. J. Davis & Co.

In the three and a half centuries since Cornelius Agrippa, no one has
attempted with so much ability as Mrs. Farnham to transfer the theory of
woman's superiority from the domain of poetry to that of science. Second
to no American woman save Miss Dix in her experience as a practical
philanthropist, she has studied human nature in the sternest practical
schools, from Sing-Sing to California. She justly claims for her views
that they have been maturing for twenty-two years of "experience so
varied as to give it almost every form of trial which could fall to the
intellectual life of any save the most favored women." Her books show,
moreover, an ardent love of literature and some accurate scientific
training,--though her style has the condensation and vigor which active
life creates, rather than the graces of culture.

The essence of her book lies in this opening syllogism:--

"Life is exalted in proportion to its organic and functional complexity;

"Woman's organism is more complex and her totality of function larger
than those of any other being inhabiting our earth;

"Therefore her position in the scale of life is the most exalted,--the
sovereign one."

This is compactly stated and quite unequivocal, although the three last
words of the conclusion are a step beyond the premises, and the main
fight of her opponents would no doubt be made on her definition of the
word _being_. The assumption that either sex of a given species is a
distinct "being" cannot probably be slid into the minor premise of the
argument without some objection from the opposing counsel. However, this
brings us at once to the main point, and the chapter called "The Organic
Argument," which opens with this syllogism, is reall