t
sentiment through the government. [Applause]. The church needs
woman, society needs woman, literature needs woman, science needs
woman, the arts need woman, politics need woman. [Applause]. A
Frenchman once wrote an essay to prove woman's right to the
alphabet. She took the alphabet, entered literature, and drove
out Dean Swift. When she takes the ballot, and enters politics,
she will drive out Fernando Wood. [Applause]. But, shall we have
a woman for President? I would thank God if to-day we had a _man_
for President. [Laughter]. Shall women govern the country? Queens
have ruled nations from the beginning of time, and woman has
governed man from the foundation of the world! [Laughter]. I know
that Plato didn't have a good opinion of women; but probably they
were not as amiable in his day as in ours. They undoubtedly have
wrought their full share of mischief in the world. The chief bone
of contention among mankind, from the earliest ages down, has
been that rib of Adam out of which God made Eve. [Laughter]. And
I believe in holding women to as great a moral accountability as
men. [Laughter]. I believe, also, in holding them to the same
intellectual accountability. Twenty years ago, when Macaulay sat
down to review Lucy Rushton's--no, I mean Lucy Aiken's (laughter)
"Life of Addison," he was forced to allude to what was a patent
fact, that a woman's book was then to be treated with more
critical leniency than a man's. But criticism nowadays never
thinks of asking whether a book be a woman's or a man's, as a
preliminary to administering praise or blame. In the Academy of
Design, the critic deals as severely with a picture painted by a
woman as with one painted by a man. This is right. Would you have
it otherwise? Not at all! We are to stand upon a common level.

The signs of the times indicate the progress of woman's cause.
Every year helps it forward visibly. The political status of
woman was never so seriously pondered as it is now pondered by
thoughtful minds in this country. By and by, the principles of
Christian democracy will cover the continent--nay, will cover the
world, as the equator belts it with summer heat! [Applause].
Until which time, we are called to diligent and earnest work.
"Learn to labor and to wait," saith the poet. There