t
the whole earth can trace the entire course of woman's ascendency from
degradation to exaltation. But it is always well to pause and to
ask of the past years what report they have borne to Heaven; and the
history of woman, studied in the light of fact and with such proper
reflections as historical circumstance suggests, must not only be a
profitable one for the correction of any ill-balanced tendencies which
may appear to close observation of woman in her present position and
spirit, but it must as well be an important section of, and, in a
sense, interpretation of, the social development of England.

CHAPTER XV

THE WOMEN OF SCOTLAND AND IRELAND

The women of Scotland are remarkable for the strength of their
domestic sentiments and for their loyalty to the land of the heather.
The stream of national life, by its merging and mingling with that of
England, has never lost the individuality which has been the pride
of the Scotch people in all their periods. Like two rivers meeting
in confluence,--the one slow and clear, but steady and strong in its
flow, the other, dashing and foaming its turbulent flood over the
breakers in its rough channel,--refusing for a long time to do other
than divide their common course until after long periods of associated
flow they finally merge, still showing in their different shadings the
mark of their diverse origin, so was it with England and Scotland. The
union is complete, but national characteristics remain.

Not so, however, with unhappy Ireland. Fundamental differences
in life, in temperament, in religion, in ideals, have served to
perpetuate the alienation of a people whose connection with England
might seem to depend on the power of but one principle--that of force.
Not strange is it that among a people which considers itself deprived
of a future the influence of the past should be predominant, and that
in the recital of the mighty deeds of the Irish chieftains of yore
should be found the chief delight of those who mingle their tears at
the shrine of such a representative of their national defeat as the
patriot O'Connell.

With the curious contradiction of nature which infusion of Celtic
blood effects, no livelier or more light-hearted race of women exists
upon the earth than that of Erin, yet, at the same time, none which
can be plunged so deeply into melancholy and feel so profoundly
the pangs of sorrow. Not to original contributions of race
characteristics, howev