rights, and
society exists to-day for woman only in so far as she is in the
keeping of some man." Thus society, including our systems of
jurisprudence, civil and political theories, trade, commerce,
education, religion, friendships, and family life, have all been
framed on the sole idea of man's rights. Hence, he takes upon himself
the responsibility of directing and controlling the powers of woman,
under that all-sufficient excuse of tyranny, "divine right." This same
cry of divine authority created the castes of India; has for ages
separated its people into bodies, with different industrial,
educational, civil, religious, and political rights; has maintained
this separation for the benefit of the superior class, and sedulously
taught the doctrine that any change in existing conditions would be a
sin of most direful magnitude.

The opposition of theologians, though first to be exhibited when any
change is proposed, for reason that change not only takes power from
them, but lessens the reverence of mankind for them, is not in its
final result so much to be feared as the opposition of those holding
political power. The Church, knowing this, has in all ages aimed to
connect itself with the State. Political freedom guarantees religious
liberty, freedom to worship God according to the dictates of one's own
conscience, fosters a spirit of inquiry, creates self-reliance,
induces a feeling of responsibility.

The people who demand authority for every thought and action, who look
to others for wisdom and protection, are those who perpetuate tyranny.
The thinkers and actors who find their authority within, are those who
inaugurate freedom. Obedience to outside authority to which woman has
everywhere been trained, has not only dwarfed her capacity, but made
her a retarding force in civilization, recognized at last by statesmen
as a dangerous element to free institutions. A recent writer, speaking
of Turkey, says: "All attempts for the improvement of that nation must
prove futile, owing to the degradation of its women; and their
elevation is hopeless so long as they are taught by their religion
that their condition is ordained of heaven." Gladstone, in one of his
pamphlets on the revival of Catholicism in England, says: "The spread
of this religion is due, as might be expected, to woman;" thus
conceding in both cases her power to block the wheels of progress.
Hence, in the scientific education of woman, in the training of her