he perfecting of the race, by
the perfecting of individual men and women through their co-operating
intelligence and affection. To limit its end to the perfecting of the
man alone, is the highest stretch of masculine arrogance. Is it not a
just inference, that, if woman is as completely a human unit as man,
she has an equal right with him to the use of every means of self-
development in the fulfilment of her destiny? The foremost claim to
be made in behalf of women, therefore, is liberty, as untrammelled a
choice of occupation and mode of life, as free a range of
individuality and spiritual fruition, as is granted to men. But would
this really be an advance, or a retrogression? Many maintain that it
would be subversive of the genuine progress of civilization, to
abandon the prejudices and throw down the bars which have hitherto
restrained women from a full share in the chosen avocations and
ambitions of men. All improvement is marked, they say, by an increase
of differences, greater separation and complexity of offices.
Therefore, to efface or lessen the social distinctions between the
sexes would be to reverse the order of development. Auguste Comte,
who felt a strong interest in this subject, and had a deep insight
into some of its data, says, "All history assures us, that, with the
growth of society, the peculiar features of each sex have become not
less but more distinct. Woman may persuade, advise, judge; but she
should not command. By rivalry in the selfish pursuits of life,
mutual affection between the sexes would be corrupted at its source.
There is a visible tendency towards the removal of women, wherever it
is possible, from all industrial occupations. Christianity has taken
from them the priestly functions they held under Polytheism. With the
decline of the principle of caste, they are more rigidly excluded
from royalty and every kind of political authority. Thus their life,
instead of becoming independent of the Family, is becoming more
concentrated in it. That Man should provide for Woman is a law of the
human race--a law connected with the essentially domestic character of
female life." There is a larger admixture of error in the foregoing
representation, than is usual with this deep and original thinker on
social ethics. It is true that differences increase with the progress
of society; it is also true that similarity increases. There is both
a minuter subdivision of functions, and a wider freedom of choi