3 oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



can justly take any individual pride, the one in his intellectual, the 

 other in her moral superiority ; rather they must see themselves as 



" Parts and proportions of a wondrous whole ; " 



as the accompanying movements whrch make up the harmony of the 

 grand diapason of the human race. 



And there is that just adaptation of the different parts which is 

 essential to and constitutes harmony. Bacon says that the causes of 

 harmony are equality and correspondence; and Pope completes our 

 argument with the line 



" All discord, harmony not understood." 



There can be, then, no real conflict of interests between man and 

 woman, since there is a mutual dependence of each upon the other, 

 bringing mutual good. Neither can it be a misfortune to be a woman, 

 as so many at the present day would have us believe, although her 

 position may be in some respects subordinate to that of man. 



In fact, the subordination of man to woman, different in kind from 

 its converse, is equally apparent ; both seem to be matters of common 

 consciousness. It may be readily seen how, in early times, when mus- 

 cular strength and general physical power were held in the highest 

 esteem, that the position of woman should have been a subordinate 

 one. Animal courage, endurance of physical hardships, the strength, 

 cunning, and agility, which enabled men to cope with wild beasts and 

 with each other, were the traits of character most prized, because most 

 conservative of life in those barbarous times ; hence the idea that, 

 woman's position is naturally a subordinate one, has acquired the force 

 of a primal intuition, and might almost be claimed as a "datum of 

 consciousness." But, as the necessities of existence have been gradu- 

 ally modified by civilization, both the character and degree of her 

 subordination have notably changed. 



Those qualities, regarded as preeminently feminine, have risen in 

 common estimation, and mere muscular superiority, and even intellect- 

 ual power, are now put to the test of comparison with the higher moral 

 qualities. 



It is true that the laws of most countries still discriminate in a 

 manner unfavorable to women. Legislation has been largely upon the 

 ideal basis of every woman being under the protection of some man, 

 and of all men being the true defenders of all women, and this is evi- 

 dently traceable to the conviction, already alluded to, that a subordi- 

 date position belongs naturally to woman. Lecky says that " the 

 change from the ideal of paganism to the ideal of Christianity was a 

 change from a type which was essentially male to a type which was 

 essentially feminine." As the race shall continue to approach the 

 level of its lofty ideal, the subordination of woman, as well as that of 

 man, will continue to lessen, since both have their chief foundation in 



