in this matter infinitely more depends upon what women do than
upon what men say; nevertheless, if my confession of faith will
be of the least service, it shall not be wanting.

I regard this movement as no less than the sum and crown of all
our moral enterprises; as a proclamation of entire social
freedom, never practicable until now. I welcome it, not merely
because it aims at delivering half the human race from
constraints that degrade and demoralize the whole, but also
because it is opening a new spiritual hemisphere, destined to put
a new heart into our semi-barbarian theology, politics, manners,
literature, and law. And especially do I rejoice, that having
defrauded the feminine element of its due share in practical
affairs for so many ages, and found ourselves, as a natural
consequence, drifting toward barbarism with all our wealth and
wisdom, we are compelled at last to learn that justice to woman
is simply mercy to ourselves.

Doubtless the main obstacles to this work come from her own sex.
Strange if it were not so; if the meagre hope doled out to women
hitherto should have unfitted them to believe that such a
function awaits them. Strange if they did not fear a thousand
perils in the untried way of freedom. But the unwise distrust
will have to be abandoned; and so will the conventional flippancy
and contempt. I think the grand duty of every honorable man
toward this effort at emancipation is simply _not to stand in its
way_. For how much is really covered by that duty? It means that
he must wash his hands of every law or prejudice that dooms woman
to an inferior position, and makes her the victim of miserable
wages and fatal competitions with herself. It means that he must
clear himself of this senseless twaddle about "woman's sphere," a
matter surely no more for his legislation, than his "sphere" is
for hers; and one upon which, at this stage of their experience,
it is unbecoming in either to dogmatize; and it means that as a
simple act of justice, he must resign to her the control of her
own earnings, secure her fair and full culture, and welcome her
to the pulpit, the bar, the medical profession, and to whatever
other posts of public usefulness she may prepare herself to fill.
As long as he fails of doing this, he is unjustly in