THE MOTHER IN WOMAN'S ADVANCEMENT. 625 



just appreciation of what is appropriate and healtlifnl in dress, 

 deserves separate and careful consideration. It is only possible 

 here to outline those powers for the good of humanity, and of 

 womankind especially, which have alwaj^s belonged to the mother, 

 and to emphasize the necessity for her use of them just now, when 

 there seems to be a call which she is peculiarly fitted to answer. 



Following upon a fine physical development, which is the first 

 object to be obtained, we may expect a truer and more natural 

 expression of tastes and tendencies, and just in that expression 

 we must look for our guide posts and follow to some extent cer- 

 tainly, in the education of our daughters, the roads toward which 

 they point. To repress all evil inclinations, whether inherited or 

 acquired, is an accepted duty to both sons and daughters ; but the 

 careful study of capabilities, the consideration and cultivation of 

 special talents, are privileges accorded, as a rule, only to our sons. 

 There is no work which can not be better done with education 

 and special cultivation than without it ; and in woman's work 

 especially, from cooking, all through the literary and professional 

 scale, up to motherhood, the greatest and most important work of 

 all, there is necessity for the high development for the informa- 

 tion, skill, discernment, and wisdom which such advantages 

 bring. With the possible responsibilities of the sufi^rage, too, 

 either open to women as a privilege or thrust upon them as a duty 

 according to the individual view of the matter the daughters 

 of to-day have need of an education not only thorough in its de- 

 tails but broad in its scope. Mrs. Elaine Goodale Eastman wrote 

 recently of a young woman who had attained " real distinction in 

 the sciences." In writing a letter to a friend on the birth of a 

 child, this exponent of the higher education for women uses these 

 significant words : " Your letter brings news which never fails to 

 thrill me. I am sure that any woman would rather hold her own 

 child in her arms than attain to any degree of eminence in science 

 or learning." So long as such an expression of the poet's ideal of 

 woman can come from one who has attained " real distinction in 

 the sciences," we need not fear the consequences of a higher in- 

 tellectual development for women. The danger lies elsewhere 

 in the derision brought upon the advancement of women by thfe 

 extravagancies of some nnwise enthusiasts, and in the encourage- 

 ment of a spirit of antagonism between man and woman a spirit 

 contrary to all the laws of God, and death to the best develop- 

 ment of mankind. This last danger was forcibly illustrated in a 

 recent magazine article which demanded that every father should 

 share with the mother the responsibility of the mental and phys- 

 ical training of his children, and entitled Modern Woman versus 

 Modern Man a most excellent subject, the very central thought 

 of which proves the necessity for working together. It was well 



VOL. XLVI. 46 



