American woman, is as vital as between the cramped foot and
degradation of a Chinese woman; as vital as between the uses of the
inmate of the harem and the apparel and training provided for her.
Moreover, I hazard nothing in saying, that an American woman will
never have made her most effectual, nor, indeed, any serviceable
protest against the treatment of her sex in China, or by the lords of
the harem, so long as she consents to have her own person clothed in
ways so repugnant to reason and religion, and grateful only to a
vitiated taste, be it in her own or in the other sex.

Women are holding their meetings; and with great ability do they urge
their claim to the rights of property and suffrage. But, as in the
case of the colored man, the great needed change is in himself, so,
also, in the case of woman, the great needed change is in herself. Of
what comparative avail would be her exercise of the right of suffrage,
if she is still to remain the victim of her present false notions of
herself and of her relations to the other sex?--false notions so
emphatically represented and perpetuated by her dress? Moreover, to
concede to her the rights of property would be to benefit her
comparatively little, unless she shall resolve to break out from her
clothes-prison, and to undertake right earnestly, as right earnestly
as a man, to get property. Solomon says: "The destruction of the poor
is their poverty." The adage that knowledge is power, is often
repeated; and there are, indeed, many instances to verify it.
Nevertheless, as a general proposition, it is a thousandfold more
emphatically true that property is power. Knowledge helps to get
property, but property is the power. That the slaves are a helpless
prey, is chiefly because they are so poor and their masters so rich.
The masses almost everywhere are well-nigh powerless, because almost
everywhere they are poor. How long will they consent to be poor? Just
so long as they shall consent to be robbed of their God-given right
to the soil. That women are helpless is no wonder, so long as women
are paupers.

As long as woman shall be silly enough to learn her lessons in the
schools of gallantry and chivalry, so long will it be the height of
her ambition to be a graceful and amiable burden upon the other sex.
But as soon as she shall consent to place herself under the
instructions of reason and common sense, and to discard, as wholly
imaginary, those differences between the natu