uld never be
troubled with that frightfully depressing feeling--the feeling that
there is nothing worth living for. Verily, the most dismal of all
deaths is to die from lack of a sufficient motive for living. And is
it not to be feared that many in our age die this death?

The true remedy for the fierce, shallow war of society, or its faded
and jaded hollowness, is to be found in generous friendships,
begotten by a common pursuit of the holiest ends of existence. In the
nurture of these relations, by every law of fitness and want, it
belongs to women to take the lead. The realm of the affections, with
its imperious exactions and its imperial largesses, is theirs.
Certainly no right or privilege should be withheld from women; but
they ought to be careful not to mistake dangers or defects or vices
for rights and privileges. It is simple blindness to fail to see that
the distinctively feminine sphere of action is domestic life, and the
inner life--not the brawling mart and caucus. The freedom and
education of woman should be so enlarged that she can include, in
intelligence and sympathy, all the interests of mankind. But, in
action, we would rather coax men to withdraw from the gladiatorial
strifes and shows of the world, than goad women to enter them.

And yet this statement needs qualification. There is much to be said
on the other side. Woman is still generally regarded, on account of
the transmitted opinions and usages of the past, as a mere appendage
to man. The truth of the greatest importance to be considered is,
that the element of humanity, not the element of sex, is the supreme
fact by which the question should be determined. Seen from the point
of view of absolute morality, man is no more a child of God and an
heir of the eternal universe, than woman. She has a personal destiny
of her own to fulfil, irrespective of him, just as much as he has
one, irrespective of her "The most important duty of woman," it has
been said, "is to perfect man." Why so? No one would say that the
most important duty of man is to perfect woman. And yet, why is it
not just as much his duty to be her servant, as it is her duty to be
his servant? It is a remnant of barbaric prejudice, preserved from
the ages of brute force, which makes the difference in the estimate.
The first duty of every human being is self-perfection. The ideal of
marriage is the mutual perfection of both parties. In its truest
idea, marriage is an institution for t