e William Ellery Channing, in a recent letter
to a friend on this point, says: "Religions like the Jewish and
Christian, which make God exclusively _male_, consign woman logically
to the subordinate position which is definitely assigned to her in
Mahometanism. History has kept this tradition. The subjection of woman
has existed as an invariable element in Christian civilization. It
could not be otherwise. If God and Christ were both represented as
male (and the Holy Ghost, too, in the pictures of the old masters), it
stood to reason and appealed to fanaticism that the male form was the
Godlike. Hence, logically, intellect and physical force were exalted
above the intuition of conscience and attractive charm. The male
religion shaped government and society after its own form. Theodore
Parker habitually addressed God as our Father and Mother. What we call
God is the infinite ideal of humanity. The preposterous, ridiculous
absurdity of supposing God so defined to be of the male sex, and to
call God 'him,' does not need a word to make it apparent. This ideal
which we all reverence, and for which we yearn, necessarily enfolds in
_One_ the attributes which, separated in our human race, express
themselves in Manhood and Womanhood."

[226] Some person, over the signature of "A Bible Reader," writing in
the _Sun_ of March 16, says: "I would be sincerely glad to know what
guarantee we have that ere long we shall not have another revision of
Scripture? It is not so long ago since the discovery of Tischendorf of
an important manuscript of the New Testament, which gave a number of
new readings. There may be in existence other and older manuscripts of
the Bible than any we now have, from which may be omitted the
narratives of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Should we then
have to give these up? If the revisers act consistently they would
certainly have to do so.

"It appears that already the Calvinists and the Trinitarians have been
deprived by the revisers of the texts they relied upon to uphold their
peculiar doctrines. It remains to be seen how the Universalists,
Baptists, and other Christian sects will fare."

APPENDIX.

CHAPTER I.

PRECEDING CAUSES.

MARGARET FULLER possessed more influence upon the thought of America,
than any woman previous to her time. Men of diverse interests and
habits of thought, alike recognized her power and acknowledged the
quickening influence of her mind upon their own. Ralph Wal