nd was in
consequence always busy sharpening and polishing and flourishing this
dread weapon in the eyes of her friends as well as her enemies,
although, of course, she only launched it at the latter.

Perched on her self-exalted eyrie, Miss Deemas did not know that there
was a pretty large number of her own sex in the comparatively humble
multitude below, who, while they clearly recognised the "wrongs of
women" (and preferred to call them "misfortunes") did not attribute them
solely, or even largely, to the wickedness of men, but to the combined
wickedness and folly of society in general, and who were of opinion that
such matters were to be put right by patient, persevering, laborious,
and persistent efforts on the part of men and women acting in concert,
and not by the unwomanly acts and declamation of ladies of the Deemas
stamp, whom they counted the worst enemies of the good cause--some
wittingly, others unwittingly so. These people among the comparatively
humble multitude below, also had the penetration to perceive that the
so-called "wrongs" did not lie all on one side, but that there was a
pretty large class of the so-called "lords" who went about the world
habitually in a sad and disgraceful state of moral semi-nakedness, in
consequence of their trousers having been appropriated and put on by
their better-halves, and that therefore it was only meet that men and
women should be united (as indeed they were from the first intended to
be) in their efforts to put each other's "wrongs" to "rights."

In addition to all this, these weak-minded (shall we call them?) people,
moving in the comparatively humble multitude below, entertained the
belief that rising in antagonism to the male sex in this matter was not
only unnecessary and unjust and impolitic, but also ungenerous, for they
reflected with much calm satisfaction that the "lords" are, after all,
"under woman's control."

But Miss Deemas and all the ladies of the Eagle stamp did not think so.
They did not believe that a strong mind means a mind strong enough to
exercise its own powers to the ascertainment and reception of truth and
the rejection of falsehood and fallacy; strong enough, under the
influence of God's love, to perceive the paths of duty in all their
ramifications, and to resolve to follow them. They did not believe that
a high spirit, in the true sense of the word, meant a spirit broken down
altogether and brought into subjection to its owner's, no