OPEN LETTER TO DR. ARNOLD RUGE, LONDON.
(From "Der Pionier" of Oct. 7, 1855.)
Your answer to my provocation, as you call it, has, in spite of all your protestations to the contrary, only strengthened my suspicion that in your heart you have a poor opinion of women, and do not concede them equal rights with men. Or, indeed, if I am to spare you this suspicion, I can do it only by taking recourse to a supposition which is equally far from being flattering, namely, that you have not yet comprehended, or are not able to comprehend, what a woman's purpose really is, when she desires to become a free human being.
First, I wish to set you at ease with regard to my personal position, as it seems to be of importance to you in the treatment of the question at issue, whether I am Mrs. or a Miss. I am neither, and do not want to be either of the two, but I place some value upon being a "woman," to the use of which term in the essay of Mr. Heinzen you do object. I have not looked for, or addressed, either the husband or the bachelor in you, but the man, or the male human being; why do you not content yourself with the woman, or the female human being? The subject of our controversy is human rights, but neither Mrs.' nor Misses' rights.
