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Parent Issue
Day
20
Month
October
Year
1871
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

From the New York Inlepondeut. I have profound faith in the inviolaility of N aturo. Neither mun nor woion can ever bo permanentiy unexed. Not all the lawa of all the landfl un adii one cubit to the stature of eithr. After the agitatiou is soothed, and tadjastment seonred, men will remain ïcn, and wcn.cn vemen, just S inu'jh alike, just as widely unlikc, and ust as attractivo in their unlikeness, as icv now are ; for Xature is ainenablo to )ivine, and not to human will. But vhile this may givo hcart to those who bar universal derangeruent and deteri ation trom the proposedchange, it ought iso to inspire cuiition in those who hope 11 tliings trom the saiuu Böuroe. Nature ïakes io allowance tor ignoranoe and ondones no mistakes. While sciolists ro experimenting sentient beings are ufferiug. If to-day women should acuire legal equality with men, and cusoins should enforeo legal equality, would leaven take hoed and give us natural quality to corrospond ? Vill divine laws )e changed to match our human codo ? I cnow some say that by divine law equaliy is already established, which is simply lying that women are men, save for a ittle training. An earnest ploader, arjuing in numbers, bids us 11 ltdttcmfoer, God bostows his care Of sex rtgardlcss everj wht-re." iothing is more palpably falso. So far s God iroui being regardless of sex tliat ex appcars rather to be the key-note of reatíon. So tut is ho from bestowing lis care regardless of sex that he eems to have been careful to confer im uunity upon the one and to impose tax upon the other. Looking at it without resrd to spiritual compensation, God is the lost partial of beings. He made one sex trong and the other sex weak ; and upn the weak ho laid a heavy burdon, vhere upon the strong ho laid none ut ill. Worse than this, lie made the buren of the weaker sex inseperable ; while he only burden of the stronger sex was o lightly and loosely laid that it could always be shifted to the shoulders of the vCitkcr and it always has, lo a greator or less degreo, been thus shifted, so that the weaker has borne the load of the stronger in addition to its own. With all this, he left it to no one's choice whether to be male or femalo, or whether to be at all ; but of his own will begat ho us. To man he gave not only strength, but joy ; to woman not only weaknoss but suö'ering. Mun incurs pain only through diseaso, the result of folly or ignoranco. Woman's highest healch and happiness comes through the valley of theshadowof death. The harshest luw that man ever framed for woman is tender and benevolent compared with the irreversible natural law under which she lives and moves, and has her being. Do I then arraign God ? I do, if social equality is the complement of natural inequality. I do, unless political decisions shall chango physical conditions ; unless constitutional amendments shall omanate from the court of Heaven to correspond with mundano legislation ; unless the decree that woman's arm shall do man's work is attended by another decreo thai it ihall be endowed with man's muscle If it is God's will that women shall be on the same footing with men ; that thej shall go out as men go, to earn their own living and inako their own way, to boar tho brunt, and forin tlie front, and fac( the foe, then there is no God. Thero is only a great, cruel, partial, pitiless mai sitting in the Heavons, whom I hato, though I cannot hinder. Happily, we are not roduced to tho alternative. God moves in a mystorious but not an arbitrary way. It is impossible to fathoin His motives ; to seo why evil should bc the inexorable attendan of good ; wliy good and evil should bo so unequally distributed. üur popular undcistanding of the Hebrew oxplanation is as little satisfaotory as the the theologioal assortion that compensiition is found in a superior moral power of endurance. The way to look for relief is not in tho direction of endurance, but of delight ; in the unspeakable joy of a lovo so intense that sacrifico bocomss iinpossible. Bo tliat as it may, on the hithcf side We aro not in doubt. Whj' God has made us as ve are 110 one cttH say. Having made us ft3 we aro, He has given suffeient intiniation of our course. God - my God - says : " The woman was not made tor toil. Man alone shall eat bread in the sweat of his browi Wouien shall work in calmness and repose. Here is the flowcr and fruit of human power, to whoso perfect ttnfolding all other human power shall ininii"tei" The imposition ot' task-work is niun's doing, not God's It is the result of imperfect, not the object of perfect developnent. It ir somethitig which ive oro gradunlLy to lorow off, not systeinatically to take on We seo this in the invariable tondency of man, is hc riscs in refinement, to eherish woinen, in the natural content of women tobo cherMiod. The instinct of love, the highest instinct of all, leads a man to defend a Woman from cvorything that is harsh, hard, repellan t, and gives him a new incentive to win f tune and fortune.41 The woman feels no such impulso. Her lovo moves her to ilntiring but sileilt sorvieei It is ingenióos and delicate, but it cravcs quiet and withdrawal. It controls by indirection - not the indirection cf duplieity, but of instinct and wisdom. lts audacity is in aftection and amusement, lts rebuke is chiefly suggestive. lts fahioniug comes in tendorness. Where a man will be downright a woman is content to be upright. The misfiry of wrong-doing pointa tho same way as the hapjinos of right doing. A woman under tho yoke, Whether sho bo ovcrburdened with the cooking, washing, and serving of her family, or with plowing and miniug - indeed, many forma of housekeeping are moro onerous and less remunerativa than many of tlio employments of ïnun - a womatl under the yoke imposed by poverty or ignorance never beoomea a man ; but often she does bocoine a worn-out woman, shattered in aervea health, tempor. In some countries it goes so fai that she becomes a brutalized woman. In all countries her couieliucss is marrcd, her physical delicaoy destroyed, hor real service is lost. Thus nature protests against tho (ion. When women are cursed with their granted prayer, the hardest lot will fall to thoso whose lot is hardest now. It is the woman for whotn all is asked ; lut it is the working-wonian of whom the word will be turned. She is the unfficndcd or the insufficiently bufricndcd. Workingwomen ure ehioïiy thoso whose male relatives are unable or unwilling to support thom. " The loving nud belsvcd wii'e, " the petted and oarossed daughter," of the strong and successful marl will bc scarccly conscious of any changa. In het well-guardcd home it matters little to hez whether sho loved by law or grace. But the unguarded woman must fight lier fight with tliu s.'iino real and relativa disability as now ; but witli on nssumcd, a Ic'ijal equaliti vrhich preoludes privilegei thuugh it oanuot disarm fate. Whilc slie has nc vote, no dcíined power, her positimi is i oonstant appeal to chivmlry, a constant rebuke to bi utality. When she li;s scizud the suffrage, her brutal employor and the Hot too gentío byt:iinlirs will not l'ail to sny : " Now you have got your long sought equality, tnakc the most of it. Ask no fa vors, and look out for yourself." Alas ! but women are women fetül. Chango thy Uwn, tliy state is the snne. Gootl men wilt be good, but the Md and seltish will have no cloak for hcir sin. With womeii somcwhat dcèrred to, and greed somewhat held in eaéb by ohame, the Life of the woal woiian is hard enough. Is it likely to be asier when sho has dismisscd the ad vanages of her sex, challenged her foaa to oinbat, and dulled the swords of her do'ondeiö 't One of tlie mot brüliant of tho suffrugc lendors- miin, liowcver - in & letter to a labor cungres, sajTi : " Eagcrly do 1 share tho sentiment that evcry m;iu íould fcujt[Xírt gome woinau- liis heaxfa mate, irfaom K! l')vcs, and Poi whom he strives. i he chivahy 'hich mukoft the utrong sus the notan] irotector of 16 treslt ruiiíiin every true in;m'& blood. ♦ . " Fmully, afler havins gallantly rooeived her into ie trade ot her choice, ií' tlieu you canuot bear to seo íursoiltag hir whitc haiids with it grime, and you iint tu gel her out of it, why, seize ttaeflnt goldra inuce to marry her out of it, and, my word for it, she a 11 then grnciously leave you tlie iuonoxoly all to 'ourselve '. " " But nuw she saya shc wont I "

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus