schief
wrought by noisy protagonists of Woman Suffrage working like beavers to
rear their airy fad upon the sandy foundation of masculine tolerance
and inattention. No rising will be needed. All that is required for the
wreck of their hopes is for a wave of reason to slide a little farther
up the sands of time, "loll out its large tongue, lick the whole
labor flat" The work has prospered so far only because nobody but its
promoters has taken it seriously. It has not engaged attention from
those having the knowledge and the insight to discern beneath its
cap-and-bells and the motley that is its only wear a serious menace to
all that civilized men hold precious in woman. It is of the nature of
men--themselves cheerful polygamists, with no penitent intentions--to
set a high value upon chastity in woman. (We need not inquire why they
do so; those to whom the reasons are not clear can profitably remain in
the valley of the shadow of ignorance.) Valuing it, they purpose having
it, or some considerable numerical presumption of it. As they perceive
that in a general way women are virtuous in proportion to the remoteness
of their lives and interests from the lives and interests of men--their
seclusion from the influences of which men's own vices are a main
part--an easy and peaceful means will doubtless be found for the
repression of the shouters.

In the orchestration of mind woman's instruments might have kept silence
without injury to the volume and quality of the music; efface the
impress of her touch upon the world and, by those who come after, the
blank must be diligently sought. Go to the top of any large city
and look about and below. It is not much that you will see, but it
represents an amazing advance from the conditions of primitive man. No
where in the wide survey will you see the work of woman. It is all the
work of men's hands, and before it was wrought into form and substance,
existed as conscious creations in men's brains. Concealed within
the visible forms of buildings and ships--themselves miracles of
thought--lie such wonder-worlds of invention and discovery as no human
life is long enough to explore, no human understanding capacious enough
to hold in knowledge. If, like Asmodeus, we could rive the roofs and
see woman's part of this prodigious exhibition--the things that she has
actually created with her brain--what kind of display would it be? It is
probable that all the intellectual energy expended by women