her sex, and that even at the time at which he
lived woman was still in great social bondage, improperly educated,
tied down by restrictions, and refused participation in the higher
positions of labor. He called not in vain, against the inequality of
the sexes, and asserted that woman's position must and should be
altered by forgetting the tyranny of the past, and, be determined, for
the good of the future.

We should be rejoiced that eloquent exponents of the abominations of
former ages, the evils of the present, and the proper position of the
future, are now hard at work. The "Women's Rights" party is up
teaching men their duties on every continent; in distant India, the
Brahmo Somaj is battling, not vainly, against the horrors of the
Zenana, and in conservative England, which has been stormed, and the
forlorn hope is now taking possession of the citadel; everywhere it is
the same. Yes, woman, thanks to Shelley and the reformers, is about to
be emancipated and free; free to earn her living, how, where, and when
she likes; the equal of man, who shall no longer play such fantastic
tricks as he did in the past, in proof of his dignity and
superiority. The fourth of July is not long past and gone; I trust
that in the dim vista of the future, our descendants will keep a
national holiday, or a day to be set apart on which shall be
celebrated the "Declaration of the Independence of Women," and then,
perhaps, Shelley's description of woman in the "Episychidion" will be
more apparent:

"Seraph of heaven! too gentle to be human,
Veiling beneath the radiant form of woman
All that is unsupportable in thee,
Of light, and love, and immortality."

I now approach a very delicate portion of my essay: the question of
the marriage relation. By many it is scouted with much virtuous
indignation, but I conceive that the liberal, who, like too many, dare
not discuss this matter in its broadest and widest aspects, should be
stigmatized as unworthy of the name. Christ is reported to have urged
the admirers of his ethical system to take up their cross and follow
him, leaving father, mother, wife, children, and all they may
have--thus Shelley acted, and it bears as equally pregnant lessons to
free thinkers as it did to those Syrian fishermen. Oh, that liberals
had as much "faith" in the truth, in the efficacy of their cause, as
the first Christians are said to have had in the teachings of that
Christ whom they regarded n