ublicly bearing her testimony against the sin of slavery, are
doing what God, by His great gifts of eloquence and song,
appointed them to do. And whatever generous and noble duty,
either in a private or a public sphere, God gives any woman the
will and the power to do, that, and that only, for her, is
feminine.

But have women, then, no sphere as women? Undoubtedly they have,
as men have a sphere as men. If a woman is a mother, God gives
her certain affections, and cares springing from them, which we
may be very sure she will not forget, and to which, just in the
degree that she is a true woman, she will be fondly faithful. We
need not think that it is necessary to fence her in, nor to
suppose that she would try to evade these duties and
responsibilities, if perfect liberty were given her. As Sydney
Smith said of education, we need not fear that if girls study
Greek and mathematics, mothers will desert their infants for
quadratic equations, or verbs in _mi_.

But the sphere of the family is not the sole sphere either of men
or women. They are not only parents, they are human beings, with
genius, talents, aspirations, ambition. They are also members of
the State, and from the very equality of the parental function
which perpetuates the State, they are equally interested in its
welfare.

Is it said that she influences the man now? Very well; do you
object to that? And if not, is there any reason why she should
not do directly what she does indirectly? If it is proper that
her opinion should influence a man's vote, is there any good
reason why it should not be independently expressed? Or is it
said that she is represented by men? Excuse me; I belong to a
country which said, with James Otis in the forum, and with George
Washington in the field, that there is no such thing as virtual
representation. The guarantee of equal opportunity in modern
society is the ballot. It may be a clumsy contrivance, but it is
the best we have yet found. In our system a man without a vote is
but half a man. So long as women are forbidden political
equality, the laws and feelings of society will be unjust to
them.

I have no more superstitious notions about the ballot than about
any other method of social improvement and progress. But all
experienc