now passing, through which we may yet have to pass, if, as I believe will be the case, it results in the growth and consolidation of this new and entrancing sense of comradeship. We cannot but expect (for old prejudice dies hard) that, for some time, there will be women like Marie Corelli and the ignoble 21,000 anti-Suffragists who will be content still to play into the hands of decadent men. But I foresee that both the submissive women and the decadent men will become fewer in number and more impotent in action, until, at no distant time, the woman who could, in any public way, betray the interests of her sisters or play into the hands of those who desire to oppress her would be branded as a traitor, not to her own sex only but to humanity.
There grows up before me the picture of the woman of the future.
Well-developed in mind and body; capable of bearing and rearing a race that will be truly imperial; independent in thought, vigorous in action, free from those pettinesses and affectations which have been built into women's nature through generations of oppression; drinking in her own cup, be it little or large; performing the duties of a citizen, and endowed with the rights of citizenship; having a career open to her, and her livelihood assured, so that marriage will no longer be a necessity, but, when chosen, will be entered upon with a full sense of responsibility to the race; looking out calmly and courageously on the life of which she knows that she forms an integral part, and enjoying
