omparison between them, the more
sharply defined, and the more clearly recognized, will the best one
be. Will not a pure and noble woman, eminently fitted by her wisdom
and virtues for social influence, entering the political arena, set
an example there, adapted to make men revere her, assimilate to her,
and become themselves more modest, self-sacrificing, and
incorruptible? On the other hand, when she is unfitted and unworthy,
will not the reflection, in her, of their own vices of exasperated
rivalry, pride, and tyranny, appear doubly detestable? Then the
ideal, so far from being injured, would rather be improved--manly
responsibilities making the women less timid and foolish, contact
with womanly sentiment making the men less coarse and reckless. How
well this conclusion is sustained by sound probabilities, deserves to
be carefully weighed. No one should dogmatize on it.

In determining how far, if at all, women had best enter into the
sphere of public life, and take part in the functions of government,
there remains another consideration, which will be decisive with many
minds. It is drawn from the difference between those things which are
in themselves good, and therefore enduring parts of human life, and
those things which are merely provisional means to good--means
necessitated by existing evils, but destined gradually to lessen, and
finally to pass away. Were political government an intrinsic and
permanent end, an essential good of humanity, all, or at least all
who are qualified, should share in it; because every human being has
a right to a portion in every thing which is indispensable to the
completion of the human destiny. Liberty, culture, and work are
intrinsic and eternal elements of the human lot: women, therefore,
have as clear a claim to these as men. But government is not a good
in itself, is not an end. It is an evil attendant on human
wickedness, a means devised to prevent severer evils; an element of
decreasing proportions and of temporary duration. It is an artifice
which we wish to see lessen as fast as is safe, and to disappear as
soon as is possible.

Take the example of war. War is an evil, a transient incident in the
fortunes of humanity; therefore the fewer who take part in it, the
better. Women, being out of it, had best keep out of it. No one
desires to have women become soldiers. Mental and physical labor
will, as long as the world lasts, be a necessary part of the
experience of humanit