e. A function is not a
duty. In the right sense of the word it is a nature or a habit. It is
the property of women and it is their prerogative to be charming, but if
they made it a duty, the effort would fail, for the intention would be
apparent and the end would impeach the means. Indeed, the whole theory
of the eighteenth century about women has gone to the limbo of smashed
crockery. It has been found that education does not hurt her. It has
been discovered that learning strengthens her like a tonic and becomes
her like a decoration. It has been discovered that she can compete with
men in the domain of lighter labor, in several of the professions, and
in not a few of the useful arts. The impression of her as a pawn, a
property or a plaything, came down from paganism to Christianity and was
too long retained by the Christian world. There is even danger of excess
in the liberality now extended to her. The toast, "Woman, Once Our
Superior and Now Our Equal," is not without satire as well as
significance. There must be a measurable reaction against the ultra
tendency in progress which has evolved the New Woman, as the phrase is.
I never met one and I hope I never shall. The women of the present, the
girls of the period, the sex up-to-date, will more than suffice to
double our joys and to treble our expenses. The new fads, as well as the
old fallacies, can be thrown among the smashed crockery of demolished
and discarded misconceptions.

I intended to say much about the smashed crockery of the lawyers. I
intended to touch upon the exploded claim that clients are their slaves,
witnesses theirs for vivisection, courts their playthings, and juries
their dupes. More mummery has thrived in law than in even medicine or
theology. The disenchanting and discriminating tendency of a realistic
age has, however, somewhat reformed the bar. Fluency, without force, is
discounted in our courts. The merely smart practitioner finds his
measure quickly taken and that the conscientious members of his calling
hold him at arm's length. Judges are learning that they are not rated
wise when they are obscure, or profound when they are stupid, or
mysterious when they are reserved. Publicity is abating many of the
abuses both of the bench and the bar. It will before long, even in this
judicial department, require both rich and poor to stand equal before
the bar of justice. The conjugal complications of plutocrats will not be
sealed up from general vi