world-inclusion, shown itself the equal of its rivals in the matter of
literature, it has yet done some work that will live. In poetry it has
given us a Sappho, a Vittoria Colonna, an Elizabeth Barrett Browning; in
fiction, a George Eliot, a George Sand, a Madame de Stae'l; in the
graver departments of letters, a Harriet Martineau. Neither America in
particular nor the present age in general has added to this important
list, but in Frances Hodgson Burnett our womanhood has at least given to
the present one of its best novelists, and there are on the roll of
women writers several who have done work that ranks above the average of
the literary production of the day.

Perhaps one of the most characteristic advances of the century at its
close was the recognition among womanhood of duties of a nature till
then unacknowledged save by a few, who had made no disciples. There had
always been many, to the praise of womanhood be it said, who had been
foremost in almsgiving and aid to the needy; indeed, the personal calls
of charity had been left almost entirely in the hands of woman as the
traditional and natural dispenser of alms. But it was not until the
latter days of our civilization, as we now know it, that women became
publicly and recognizedly the leaders in the great charitable movements;
it was even not until that time that women, in individual guise, became
known as philanthropists. Especially is the fact of a rich woman, such
as Miss Helen Gould, being prominently identified with benevolent work a
product of our own time. There may have been in the past many who gave,
and that liberally, but they did not identify themselves and their lives
with their charities; they did not give themselves as well as their
money. It is less the pecuniary generosity of Miss Gould to worthy
objects than her personal identification therewith, her gift of part of
her life to such objects, that is worthy of commemoration; and in her
way she stands a type of the later American woman. When she gave the
munificent sum of one hundred thousand dollars--but a portion of her
total contribution--to the work of the hospital service at the beginning
of the war with Spain, she did something, yet hardly achieved rivalry
with a certain widow of Scriptural fame; but when, at Camp Wikoff, she
nursed with her own hands the sick soldiers of her country she brought
to her gift of money the far finer gift of her own personality, and thus
added to the former in