70 EMANCIPATION BLACK AND WHITE ni 



heretic go so far as to lay his hands upon the ark 

 itself, so to speak, and to defend the startling 

 paradox that, even in physical beauty, man is the 

 superior. He admitted, indeed, that there was a 

 brief period of early youth when it might be hard 

 to say whether the prize should be awarded to the 

 graceful undulations of the female figure, or the 

 perfect balance and supple vigour of the male 

 frame. But while our new Paris might hesitate 

 between the youthful Bacchus and the Venus 

 emerging from the foam, he averred that, when 

 Venus and Bacchus had reached thirty, the point 

 no longer admitted of a doubt ; the male form 

 having then attained its greatest nobility, while 

 the female is far gone in decadence ; and that, at 

 this epoch, womanly beauty, so far as it is inde- 

 pendent of grace or expression, is a question of 

 drapery and accessories. 



Supposing, however, that all these arguments 

 have a certain foundation ; admitting, for a 

 moment, that they are comparable to those by 

 which the inferiority of the negro to the white 

 man may be demonstrated, are they of any value 

 as against woman-emancipation ? Do they afford 

 us the smallest ground for refusing to educate 

 women as well as men to give women the same 

 civil and political rights as .men ? No mistake is 

 so commonly made by clever people as that of 

 assuming a cause to be bad because the arguments 

 of its supporters are, to a great extent, non- 



