h definitely to alter the
social condition of women. At present women are beautiful and delicate
adjuncts of life. As Prometheus said of horses, they are the ornaments
of wealth and luxury. They add perfume and refinement to existence. But,
after all, it is an important question whether the conversion of women
into this sort of drawing-room delicacy is not sacrificing the welfare
of the many to the intellectual and social comfort of the few.

The world pays a heavy price for having its imagination sentimentalized.
One of the items in the bill is the disappointment of the thousands
whose sensibilities are never destined to be satisfied. For every woman
who marries happily, a large percentage never marry at all, or marry in
haste and repent at leisure. It remains to be proved that it is wise to
teach and train the sex to fix all their views in life and to stake all
their fortunes on the chance of the one rare thing--a lucky matrimonial
choice. If one could succeed in de-sentimentalizing society, one would
take from a few the chief pleasure of living, but it is far from certain
that the material welfare of the majority would not be proportionately
increased. Half-measures would of course be of very little use.

It would be a poor exchange to take from women all their reserve and
innocence and refinement, without giving them free play in the world.
They would be only coarse and wicked caricatures of what they are now.
The change, to be tolerable, would have to be effectual and thorough. It
would be necessary to change the whole current of their ideas, and the
whole view of man about them also; to persuade the human race to fix its
mind less on the difference of sexes, and to become less imaginative
upon the subject. If so sweeping an alteration could be completely
effected, perhaps it might be worth while to consider whether woman's
absolute independence would not strengthen her character, and add
permanently to the world's natural wealth.

One thing is certain, that if woman is to continue for ever in her
present condition, the moral and social condition of large numbers of
human beings must remain hopeless. Their future appears dreary in the
extreme. It is Utopian to expect that men and women will grow less and
less self-indulgent, so long as the education they undergo from their
earliest years renders them prone to every species of temptation. There
are some things which make social philosophers hopeful and confident,