he exercise of authority. The genuine perfection of
humanity, instead of being the enforced obedience of one half to the
other half, is the spontaneous obedience of both halves to the law of
God. The incomplete statement of Paul, "I suffer not a woman to usurp
authority," is supplemented by the far deeper word of Christ, "Ye
know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them,
and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall
not be so among you: whosoever will be great among you, let him be
your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your
servant." This is the ideal of the future--that man shall no more have
authority to command than woman, everybody doing right voluntarily,
under the intrinsic sway of morality. Politics is the reign of force
by legislative sanctions: morality is the reign of affection by
social sanctions. The latter is pre-eminently the sphere of woman. Is
it her sole sphere, or is she also called to enter the other sphere?

One thing is clear; namely, that it is unjust for the laws to
discriminate against women on account of their actual exclusion from
political power. They ought to have the same legal rights as men to
earn, hold, and control property. Since they have the same interest
as man in the laws they live under, they are entitled, in some way,
either by their own voice or through others, to the same
consideration in the framing and execution of those laws.

Shall we go still further, and say that they ought to take an equal
part with men in the caucus, at the ballot-box, in the senate, at the
bar, on the bench, and elsewhere? If universal suffrage be the true
theory of government, then, logically, women are entitled to vote;
because they, equally with men, represent humanity. Every asserted
disqualification, on the ground of ignorance or preoccupation, is
sophistical; because the same plea would disqualify four-fifths of
the men too. If a government of all by all be the true theory, it is
a wrong to exclude women. If they are not fully qualified, they ought
to become qualified; and the only way to qualify them is to confess
their claim and begin their education. Either all should vote, or
merely those who are fitted: if merely those who are fitted, then
thousands of men would be shut out, thousands of women admitted.

The plea for the admission of women to political activity is often
met by the assertion, that they do not themselves wish