but there have been clear-headed women enough in all antiquity, and there are too many well-developed minds among them to-day, not to make them resent further tricking out with masculine trappings. The wise old Greeks saw fit to personify mind in a woman; the moderns seem to be afraid of such a result.
If education must be specialized, and women should be fitted to become wise mothers, then, in all fairness, men should be trained to become intelligent fathers. Their lack in this respect is as palpable to any just mind as the failure of women in motherhood. That there should be fathers, and good fathers, is no less important, from a utilitarian standpoint, than that there should be good mothers. Indeed, it may be questioned whether there are not annually more children lost to the world through the wickedness and ignorance of male parents[1] than would be gained by the conversion of all "self-supporting spinsters" into model matrons. It is not necessary to enter into detail here, but appalling statistics are easily obtainable. Until no foundling hospital, no abandoned family exists, it is ungenerous to reproach woman with evading or "shirking" her natural duties. Postponement of marriage by men results in another not inconsiderable evil, false marriage[2] of many young women. Nature often revenges herself here by a lack of mothers. The wiser plan would be to follow the teaching of Nature and not dissociate the sexes, particularly during impressionable years. In study, work, or society, do not bar them from each other; then they will not form the erroneous notions that taint maturity. Let them be "human, instead of half-human."
III. The most evident good of education to woman, aside from the discipline of mind and development of power, is in its teaching observation of nature and the intelligent use rather than the repression of any instinct or force. Those who assert that these influences "unsex" woman, render her "unwomanly," should explain what is meant. She may lose some of the characteristics that have distinguished her in the past, but while analytic or radical minds call these characteristics local and temporary, conservatives cling to them as part of essential womanhood. It may be observed that, although Mr. Allen holds fast to the term of "radical," he agrees with our dear old great-grandmothers in this apprehension that education[3] and independence unfit women to become mothers. To these timid souls may be recommended a
- ↑ Meaning the sex as a whole. The large class with which we are best acquainted includes fathers whose fidelity to duty and patient toil equal, if they do not surpass, those of the hardest-working mothers.
- ↑ Marriage under coercion, or from social or ambitious motives, ignores natural selection, and is often unproductive. A striking example of this is given in France, where false marriage prevails.
- ↑ The same education as that given to man.
