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CONSTANCE L. MAYNARD^ ON THE 



given EG help at all. She seems to have no power of invention. 

 Weapons of war do not interest her, but, mark you, she did not 

 invent the weaving loom or the sewing machine, which touch her 

 own life so closely ; and if we turn to the most congenial themes, 

 we find her seldom among the composers of music and writers of 

 poetry. That part of her brain seems to be left out, and hardly 

 one thing, from the safety-pin of the Celtic barrows to the 

 fountain-pen of to-day, owes its existence to her. 



Where, then, is her supremacy ? Where is the region where she 

 leads ? It is outside the world of matter altogether, and is in 

 the world of the heart and the soul, showing itself in protection, 

 patience, hope and love. Her sovereignty has its dim dawn in 

 the instinctive care of the babe, which is a sacrifice of the ease 

 and pleasure of the stronger life for the service of the weaker 

 life. This God -given instinct is clearly seen in the character of 

 all the higher animals as well : in the world of the dog, the cat, 

 the sheep, the horse and the rabbit, and the rest of our friends, 

 paternity is morally non-existent, and the whole burden falls 

 on the mother. We may sum it up by saying that the Man- 

 principle fights for his own present life, to make it stronger, 

 wider, happier ; while the Woman-principle fights for the life 

 cf another, for something blind, weak, helpless, that does not 

 know its own interests. She works for the future rather than 

 for the present, and in the long period of protective compassion, 

 true love is at last born within her, love that " beareth all things, 

 believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things," love 

 that " never faileth." 



This love at first is very narrow, being limited to her own 

 child, and that only for the years of dependence, as we may see 

 in the savage mother ; but, by the good hand of our God over 

 us, it expands and ramifies to every outpost and corner of life. 

 From this one ancestral love springs ail the sweetness of com- 

 munal society where the strong stand back for the weak, and all 

 kinds of loyalty and patriotism, and all sympathy with sickness, 

 suffering and poverty, and, at last, all world-wide philanthropy. 

 When the Woman jipirit, the Mother-spirit, is firmly fixed, it is, 

 as time goes on, inherited by the sons as well as by the daughters, 

 and you have that noble being — the sympathetic, generous, 

 beneficent man. At last Eve is fully created within, .for the 

 Man -spirit is conscious that there is a superior force in the 

 world to that of mere muscular strength or of cunning inven- 

 tions : the force of gentleness, sweetness and affection ; and 



