ce in
the selection of their functions by individuals. In the rudest state,
the relative condition and mode of life of whole classes are rigidly
fixed by their birth or by arbitrary violence. As science and art are
developed, and wealth accumulated, the varieties of industry and of
social rank are largely multiplied; liberty of choice is extended,
and facility of change is increased. Once there was a royal caste, a
priestly caste, a warrior caste, a servile caste; determined by
blood, and unalterable. These invidious castes are now, for the most
part, broken down, and their several functions comparatively open to
all who, observing the conditions, choose to fulfil them. The most
prevalent and obstinate of caste distinctions is that of sex; the
monopoly by man of public action, power, and honor; the exclusion of
one-half of our race from what men regard as the highest social
prerogatives, an exclusion which was no deliberate act, but a natural
result of historic causes. Dr. Hedge says, with the clear vigor
characteristic of his admirable mind, "As to the charge of exclusion,
I think it would be quite as correct to say that women have combined
to exclude men from the kitchen, the laundry, the nursery, as that
men have combined to exclude women from the army or the navy, or the
bar or the pulpit, or the broker's board. I suppose the assignment of
either sex to the class of occupations which society, as now
constituted, respectively devolves upon them came about in the
beginning as naturally as the difference in costume which has always
divided male and female. A sense of fitness, of natural affinity,
determined each in its several way. There was no compulsion of the
weaker by the stronger, and no formal allotment. Each following its
own instincts arrived where it is. A tacit agreement settled this
point as it has so many others of the social economy. Nor would any
discontent with the present arrangement have arisen; had the family
life kept pace with the growth of society." This exclusive usurpation
of the public life by man--or rather, as we should say, this natural
development and division--so organized by immemorial usage as to have
become a second nature in both parties, is at last beginning to
reveal its injustice, and to give way. In savage life, woman is
little more than a bearer of burdens, a slave, and a drudge; as
coarse as man, and lower in rank and treatment. The man fishes,
hunts, fights, plays, rests; putting