THE EEVOLUTIO^STARY MOVEMENT AMONG WOMEN. 175 



defined tliao another, it is this: That man is intended for massing 

 himself with his fellows in organization, and woman for abiding in 

 the unity of self-hood. Man for openly aggressive, and woman for 

 silent, DOwer is the law of power; each after its fitness and its des- 

 tiny. Since the world was, man has appeared best in activity, 

 woman in repose. Instance the testimony of all marble and can- 

 vas, as well as of literature, and observe it in the daily round where 

 the self-blinded eyes of men begin to see this open secret of the 

 social disorder. 



Women do not crave a public career, nor would they remain long 

 in public life if its paths were fully open to them. They do not 

 seek the ballot to this end. Even the majority of the leaders of 

 this movement desire nothing so much as the protection a domes- 

 tic sphere and home-life theory promise them. As before the Magi 

 of the old, a woman stands to-day before the law maker of this new 

 time questioned as to what most pleases woman. And thus has 

 she always stood, answering in the language of the myth, " To be 

 loved, to be studied by her husband, and to be mistress of the 

 house." 



The difference between the women of that and this time is in 

 the manner of the response. The Persian representative of her 

 sex stood in the twilight of the world, asking for a veil behind 

 which to hide from even the gods, who held in their keeping such 

 precious gifts, her sacred joy in anticipation of their bestowal; 

 while the representative-movement woman of to-day stands on 

 platform and in press in the emphasis of her determination to have 

 something better than the promise of these good things. 



To be loved, to be studied, and to be mistress of the home where 

 strength and h(mor are her clothing, this has always been and 

 always will be the joy and crown of woman. "By the laws of her 

 physical and spiritual being, as well as by intellectual preferences, 

 she is wedded to her motherhood. But she never has been, and 

 never can be, true to it under the mi position of conditions depen- 

 dent upon the will of man. 



Ideal freedom, v/hich is the birthright of every human soul, is 

 more necessary and more possible to woman than to man, if any 

 comparison cau be made. Alone with herself, in the unity of that 

 mysterious bond which binds a finite to an infinite being, woman 

 becomes a power for btiffling evil and furthering good. But under 



