he power to extend or limit the suffrage rests now wholly in the
hands of man, he can commence the experiment with as small a number as
he sees fit, by requiring any lawful qualification. Men were admitted
on property and educational qualifications in most of the States, at
one time, and still are in some--so hard has it been for man to
understand the theory of self-government. Three-fourths of the women
would be thus disqualified, and the remaining fourth would be too
small a minority to precipitate a social revolution or defeat
masculine measures in the halls of legislation, even if women were a
unit on all questions and invariably voted together, which they would
not. In this view, the path of duty is plain for the prompt action of
those gentlemen who fear universal suffrage for women, but are willing
to grant it on property and educational qualifications. While those
who are governed by the law of expediency should give the measure of
justice they deem safe, let those who trust the absolute right
proclaim the higher principle in government, "equal rights to all."

Many seeming obstacles in the way of woman's enfranchisement will be
surmounted by reforms in many directions. Co-operative labor and
co-operative homes will remove many difficulties in the way of woman's
success as artisan and housekeeper, when admitted to the governing
power. The varied forms of progress, like parallel lines, move forward
simultaneously in the same direction. Each reform, at its inception,
seems out of joint with all its surroundings; but the discussion
changes the conditions, and brings them in line with the new idea.

The isolated household is responsible for a large share of woman's
ignorance and degradation. A mind always in contact with children and
servants, whose aspirations and ambitions rise no higher than the roof
that shelters it, is necessarily dwarfed in its proportions. The
advantages to the few whose fortunes enable them to make the isolated
household a more successful experiment, can not outweigh the
difficulties of the many who are wholly sacrificed to its
maintenance.

Quite as many false ideas prevail as to woman's true position in the
home as to her status elsewhere. Womanhood is the great fact in her
life; wifehood and motherhood are but incidental relations.
Governments legislate for men; we do not have one code for bachelors,
another for husbands and fathers; neither have the social relations of
women any signif