We have laid our foundation. God is loving tc 
all the lives He has called into being: ye are His 
children, and your duty is to be like unto your 
Father. To fail in this is to fail in your life’s work, 
and to squander the great gifts which have been 
given you. Great is your responsibility ! Now how 
stands the fact ? 
There are three things for which your nature has 
specially fitted you. These are love, thoughtfulness, 
and refinement. Nothing should ever induce you, or 
compel you, to betray your nature in any of these 
three points. And yet, with all sorrow, but with all 
plainness, there are countless numbers of you whom I 
am forced to accuse of cruelty, of folly, and of 
vulgarity. I do not condemn you without reason. 
Let us examine. 
I. The women of England are guilty of intense and 
heartless cruelty. A writer of great repute has 
accused you in stern language because you waste 
your powers in sentiment instead of spending them 
in action. Professor Ruskin, speaking on war, says, 
“ It is not the fault of us men. It is your fault. 
Wholly yours. The real, final reason for all the 
poverty, misery, and rage of battle throughout 
Europe is simply that you women, however good, 
however religious, however self-sacrificing for those 
whom you love, are too selfish and too thoughtless 
to take pains for any creature out of your own 
immediate circles. You fancy that you are sorry for 
the pain of others. Now I first tell you this, that 
if the usual course of war, instead of unroofing 
peasants' houses, and ravaging peasants’ fields, 
merely broke the china upon your own drawing-room 
tables, no war in civilised countries would last a 
week. I tell you more, that at whatever moment 
you chose to put a period to war, you could do it 
with less trouble than you take any day to go out to 
dinner.” * These are strong words from one whose 
* Crown of Wild Olive,” p. 169. 
