218 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



As a consequence of this superficial convention, it becomes ab- 

 solutely unsafe for respectable women to violate its code. Com- 

 pare this with the state of things in our own country. Are our 

 young women less pure or our young men less gallant where no 

 such artificial system obtains ? Is there not rather the greatest 

 respect here for the young woman who treads fearlessly our 

 streets, thinking no evil ? But there are many bad people 

 abroad. Shall the pure, therefore, be kept at home, their freedom 

 fettered, their sphere of usefulness limited, because one third, 

 perhaps, of those whom they pass go to and fro, abetting the 

 indulgence of vulgarity and crime ? 



And if in the streets a pure woman commands respect because 

 of her dignified bearing ; if in the halls of higher education she 

 walks apace with the thinkers of the day ; if in the arts and 

 sciences she is welcome as an able participant, why should she 

 be barred from grappling with the greatest question of existence 

 — the mystery of life and the abuses with which it is so thickly 

 surrounded ? "Will she bring thither an insight less keen, a sym- 

 pathy less spiritual, a judgment less temperate, a power less prac- 

 tical ? And if she is to cope with tire" subject at all, is there any 

 time when she will be in fuller power, in greater subtilty of in- 

 fluence, than in her developing womanhood ? That she can reform 

 our sensual world I do not claim ; but that she is an interme- 

 diary, singularly well fitted for this work, I most earnestly be- 

 lieve. 



Do not misunderstand me. I would not urge her going with 

 the doctor on his rounds, nor the policeman on his raids. I 

 would not drag her unneedfully to the haunts of shamelessness 

 and resulting torment, but I would urge that she learn the prin- 

 ciples of this, as of all life's lessons, in her early youth ; that she 

 be gravely and reverently led on to perceive her own high useful- 

 ness in perpetuating right views of this matter, so that with full 

 knowledge she may face the sad life around her ; that the veil be 

 gradually moved aside — not kept tightly drawn till rent asunder 

 at a time when the awakening must inevitably result in a revul- 

 sion of affection, a cynicism of spirit, and a hardness of heart, 

 whose exceeding bitterness only those who have suffered can 

 know. 



I claim that the idea of usefulness, the quickening to the high- 

 est form of womanhood, combined with the early revelation of 

 God's plan, will go further to disarm sensual thoughts than any 

 artificial innocence, however well guarded. 



Does any one question the purity of our young women physi- 

 cians or our trained nurses ? Does their knowledge of disease 

 and its causes take from them that nicety of feeling with which 

 they entered the profession ? In many instances a sweet serious- 



