ore variety of
career. While the special graces of the feminine character do not appear
to have suffered, there has been produced a sort of independence and a
capacity for self-help which are increasingly valuable as the number of
unmarried women increases. More resources are open to an American woman
who has to lead a solitary life, not merely in the way of employment,
but for the occupation of her mind and tastes, than to a European
spinster or widow; while her education has not rendered the American
wife less competent for the discharge of household duties.

How has the nation at large been affected by the development of this new
type of womanhood, or rather perhaps of this variation on the
English type?

If women have on the whole gained, it is clear that the nation gains
through them. As mothers they mold the character of their children;
while the function of forming the habits of society and determining its
moral tone rests greatly in their hands. But there is reason to think
that the influence of the American system tells directly for good upon
men as well as upon the whole community. Men gain in being brought to
treat women as equals, rather than as graceful playthings or useful
drudges. The respect for women which every American man either feels, or
is obliged by public sentiment to profess, has a wholesome effect on his
conduct and character, and serves to check the cynicism which some other
peculiarities of the country foster. The nation as a whole owes to the
active benevolence of its women, and their zeal in promoting social
reforms, benefits which the customs of Continental Europe would scarcely
have permitted women to confer. Europeans have of late years begun to
render a well-deserved admiration to the brightness and vivacity of
American ladies. Those who know the work they have done and are doing in
many a noble cause will admire still more their energy, their courage,
their self-devotion. No country seems to owe more to its women than
America does, nor to owe to them so much of what is best in social
institutions and in the beliefs that govern conduct.

By permission of James Bryce and the Macmillan Company.

* * * * *

THE ASCENT OF ARARAT

From 'Trans-Caucasia and Ararat'

About 1 A.M. we got off, thirteen in all, and made straight across the
grassy hollows for the ridges which trend up towards the great cone,
running parallel in a west-north-westerly direction,