ent and deserted
her. Then her affection became fixed on a young girl; but how could she
make her suit to one apparently of her own sex? With passions that
prompt her to seek both sexes, she belongs to neither. 'What shall I do
here on earth?' she exclaimed, in tears, to a man of science who
recently visited her. 'What am I? In my life an object of scientific
experiment, and after my death an anatomical curiosity.'

There are also persons--very few indeed--who have no sex at all. They
are without organs and without passions. Such creatures seem to have
been formed merely to show us that this much-talked-of difference of sex
is, after all, nothing inherent in the constitution of things, and that
individuals may be born, live and thrive, of both sexes, or of neither.

THE SPHERE OF WOMAN.

Our province lies within the physical sphere of woman. But we will here
allow ourselves a momentary digression. It will be seen that while these
differences are not radical, yet they are peculiarly permanent. They
hint to us the mental and intellectual character of woman. What opinion
should we hold on this much-vexed question?

To this effect: The mental faculties of man and woman are unlike, but
not unequal. Any argument to the contrary, drawn from the somewhat less
weight of the brain of woman, is met by the fact that the most able men
are often undersized, with small heads. The subordinate place which
woman occupies in most states, arises partly from the fact that the part
she plays in reproduction prevents her from devoting her whole time and
energies to the acquisition of power, and partly from the fact that
those faculties in which she is superior to man have been obscured and
oppressed by the animal vigor and selfishness of the male. As
civilisation advances, the natural rights of woman will be more and more
freely conceded, until the sexes become absolutely equal before the law;
and, finally, her superiority in many respects will be granted, and she
will reap the benefits of all the advantages it brings, without desiring
to encroach on those avocations for which masculine energy and strength
are imperatively needed.

The most peculiar features of woman's life are hers for a limited period
only. Man is man for a longer time than woman is woman. With him it is a
lifetime matter; with her it is but for a score of years or so. Her
child-bearing period is less than half her life. Within this time she
passes through all the ph