THE MISSION OF EDUCATED WOMEN. 603 



their logic to the bitter end, they admit that, under existing con- 

 ditions, and probably for long periods yet to come, the women 

 who assume motherhood as their vocation must be prepared to 

 renounce, more or less completely, their chance for intellectual 

 development. 



To this point our argument, on the evening of which I speak, 

 went smoothly enough. Little or no exception was taken to Mr. 

 Allen's position. So long as he made himself only an exponent 

 of natural laws, and of their inevitable effect upon the social 

 fabric, there were no dissentient voices. But there came a mo- 

 ment when the qnestion must be put point blank, and it was then 

 that, for the first time, we, so to speak, came down to business. 



" Now," I said, from my vantage-ground of neutrality, " you 

 have cleared the decks. No social philosopher can demand more 

 hearty agreement with the principles of his science than you 

 have given ; no man could desire more generous acknowledgment 

 of man's place in creation, or of the fundamental relations of the 

 sexes, than you offer; but the main issue is still untouched. 

 Tell me why you, as representative individuals, have not married, 

 do not marry, and are endeavoring, so far as educational methods 

 can do it, to perpetuate your type ? " 



Masculine critics will possibly here suggest that a truthful 

 answer to the first of these questions was far and away beyond 

 my reach ; but the women to whom I was speaking were fully in 

 earnest, and there were no evasions. 



" In the first place," said a clever woman beside me, " while we 

 deny that our education unsexes us, we are conscious that it gives 

 us a self-control, a balance, which is of inestimable advantage 

 to us in the practical affairs of life, and induces us to consider 

 marriage from more than one point of view. In the past, it is 

 the emotional nature of women which has been cultivated, often 

 at a heavy cost. Now, her intellect is taking charge, and we 

 believe that there is no longer any reason why, as a rule, we 

 should be sacrificed to our own emotions. Is it not, on the 

 whole, desirable that women should study facts and weigh rea- 

 sons as men do ? You may say that it is the emotional virtues 

 which are distinctively feminine, and that, as Mr. Allen says, 

 1 a woman's glory is to be womanly, as a man's is to be virile ' ; 

 but can it be shown that the training of her intellect makes a 

 woman any less capable of love and devotion ? Does it make 

 her any less willing to sacrifice herself for the good of others ? 

 I think, on the contrary, that there is abundant witness to the 

 fact that the increase of a woman's intellectual power usually 

 intensifies her susceptibility to high motives, from whatever 

 source they may reach her, or through whatever channel they 

 may come. But, certainly, she is no longer a passive recipient ; 



