soul on soul,
action by word, by example, by the whole personality. Women of Europe,
you fail to use this power as you should. You are now attempting to
extirpate the plague which afflicts the world, to wage war against the
war. You do well, but your action comes too late. You could have fought,
you ought to have fought, against this war before it broke out; to have
fought it in the hearts of men. You do not realise your power over us.
Mothers, sisters, helpmates, friends, sweethearts, you are able, and you
will, to mould man's soul. The soul of the child is in your hands; and
in relation to a woman whom he respects and loves, a man is ever a
child. Why do you not guide his footsteps? If I may give a personal
example, let me say that to certain among you I owe what is best or what
is least bad in my own nature. If, during this whirlwind, I have been
able to maintain unshaken my faith in human brotherhood, my love of
love, and my scorn of hate, I owe this to a few women. To name but two
among them: I owe it to my mother, a true Christian, who in early
childhood inspired me with a passion for the eternal; and I owe it to
the great European, Malvida von Meysenbug, the sublime idealist, who in
her serene old age was the friend of my youth. If a woman can save one
man's soul, why do not you women save all men's souls? The reason,
doubtless, is that too few among you have as yet saved your own souls.
Begin at the beginning! Here is a matter more urgent than the conquest
of political rights (whose practical importance I am far from
under-rating). The most urgent matter is the conquest of yourselves.
Cease to be man's shadow; cease to be the shadow of man's passions, of
his pride and of his impulse towards destruction. Gain a clear vision of
the brotherly duty of sympathy, of mutual aid, of the community of all
beings; these make up the supreme law prescribed to Christians by the
voice of Christ, and to free spirits by the free reason. Yet how many of
you in Europe to-day are carried away by the gusts of passion which have
overpowered the minds of men; how many of you, instead of enlightening
men, add their own fever to the universal delirium!

Begin by making peace within yourselves. Rid yourselves of the spirit of
blind combativeness. Do not allow yourselves to be embroiled in the
struggle. You will not make an end of the war by making war on the war;
your first step should be to save your own hearts from the war, by
saving f