ty of man is that he
will do the most atrocious things without compunction, but would be
shocked if he were called upon to discuss them. Do what you like, is
his principle, but don't mention it; people form their opinions in
discussion, and opinions are apt to be adverse. Our principle is very
much the opposite."

"I have just begun to know the necessity for open discussion," Beth
answered tranquilly. "I do not see how we can arrive at happiness in
life if we do not try to discover the sources of misery. I know of
nothing that earnest men and women should hesitate to discuss openly
on proper occasions."

"Oh, I'm thankful to hear you say 'men and women,'" Angelica broke in.
"That is the right new spirit! Let us help one another. Any attempt to
separate the interests of the sexes, as women here and there, and men
generally, would have them separated, is fatal to the welfare of the
whole race. The efforts of foolish people to divide the interests of
men and women make me writhe--as if we were not utterly bound up in
one another, and destined to rise or fall together! But this woman
movement is towards the perfecting of life, not towards the
disruption of it. I asked a sympathetic woman the other day why she
took no part in it, and she answered profoundly, 'Because I am a part
_of_ it.' And I am sure she was right. I am sure it is evolutionary.
It is an effort of the race to raise itself a step higher in the scale
of being. For see what it resolves itself into! Men respond to what
women expect of them. When warriors were the women's ideal, men were
warriors. When women preferred knights, priests, or troubadours, a
man's ambition was to be a knight, priest, or troubadour. When women
thought drunkenness fine, men were drunken. Now women want husbands of
a nobler nature, strong in all the attributes, moral and physical, of
the perfect man, that their children may be noble too, and thus the
ascent of man to higher planes of being become assured."

"Great is the power of thought," said Lady Fulda. "By thinking these
things the race is evolving them. Thought married to suggestion is a
creative force. If the race believed it would have wings; in the
course of ages wings would come of the faith."

"And discussion is not enough," Beth resumed. "We should experiment.
It is very well to hold opinions and set up theories, but opinions and
theories are alike valueless until they are tested by experiment."

"I see you are a true r