of its rules; for if the husband choose, he has his wife as
firmly in his grasp and dominion, as the _hawk_ has the _dove_
upon whom he has pounced. This age is ahead of the law. Public
opinion is a check to legal rules on this subject, but the rules
are feudal and stern. It can not, however, be concealed that the
position of woman is always the criterion of the freedom of a
people or an age, and when man shall despise that right which is
founded only on might, woman will be free to stand on an equal
level with him--a friend and not a dependent."

Mrs. Gage also, and with like effect, cited from the same learned
jurist, laws, which, had her lecture been a sermon, might have
been prefixed as a text. Such opinions, although but seldom known
to any but lawyers, and not appreciated by many of them, have
frequently been printed in books, which, however, being
professional, are perused by few persons only. Mrs. Gage[133]
concluded her excellent discourse with Bryant's celebrated
stanza, relative to truth and error.

Miss Anthony's situation had become embarrassing, if not
critical. At a late hour of a summer night, she was to follow
Mrs. Gage on the same subject, and before a fastidious audience,
almost surfeited during three days with public addresses in
several different conventions, and many of whom desired to
contrast her expected effort with the splendid platform eloquence
of Henry J. Raymond, Wm. H. Burleigh, and "their like,"
fearlessly advocating the redress of wrongs and the promotion of
human rights. Miss Anthony, who had conciliated her audience by
lady-like conduct and courtesy, in providing seats for the
accommodation of those standing, commenced with an appropriate
apology for unavoidable repetition, when it was her lot to follow
Mrs. Gage. Sufficient here to say that she acquitted herself
admirably. The simplicity and repose of her manner, the dignity
of her deportment, the distinctiveness of her enunciation, her
emphatic earnestness, the pathos of her appeals, and completeness
of her arguments, convinced the understanding and persuaded all
hearts.

The gossip of mustached dandies, and the half-suppressed giggle
of bedizened beauty, soon settled down into respectful attention,
if not appreciation. Indeed many of the most in