xpedient
that it should be put, not on the basis of old grievances, but
upon the ground of new light, of recent and fresh experiences, of
change of circumstances. It may be that the relative position of
the sexes is so changed by an advancing civilization, that the
time has come for questioning the conclusion of the world
respecting woman's sphere. All surprise at opposition to this
notion, all sense of injury, all complaint of past injustice,
ought to cease. Woman's part has been the part which her actual
state made necessary. If another and a better future is opening,
let us see it and rejoice in it as a new gift of Providence.

And we are not without suspicion that the time for some great
change has arrived. At any rate, we confess our surprise at the
weight of the reasoning brought forward by the recent Convention,
and shall endeavor henceforth to keep our masculine mind,--full,
doubtless, of conventional prejudices,--open to the light which
is shed upon the theme.

Meanwhile, we must beg the women who are pressing this reform, to
consider that the conservatism of instinct and taste, though not
infallible, in respectable and worth attention. The opposition
they will receive is founded on prejudices that are not selfish,
but merely masculine. It springs from no desire to keep women
down, but from a desire to keep them up; from a feeling, mistaken
it may be, that their strength, and their dignity, and their
happiness, lie in their seclusion from the rivalries, strifes,
and public duties of life. The strength and depth of the respect
and love for woman, as woman, which characterize this age, can
not be overstated. But woman insists upon being respected, as a
kindred intellect, a free competitor, and a political equal. And
we have suspicions that she may surprise the conservative world
by making her pretensions good. Only meanwhile let her respect
the affectionate and sincere prejudices, if they be prejudices,
which adhere to the other view, a view made honorable, if not
proved true, by the experiences of all the ages of the past. We
hope to give the whole subject more attention in future. Indeed
it will force attention. It may be the solution of many social
problems, long waiting an answer, is delayed by the neglect to
take woman's cas