cientific research she has grandly
won her way, and that despite the marshalled forces of conservatism,
which have stubbornly contested every step that has looked towards a
broader, more independent and purposeful life. For centuries relegated
to the rear, compelled to take thought second-hand, denied a healthful
freedom and the right of a liberal education, so highly prized by man,
her marvellous attainments since she has in a measure broken the bonds
of conservatism and trampled under foot the baleful heritage of
ancient thought, have been so splendid in their reality and so
pregnant with prophecies of future triumph, that I confidently expect
to find in her the one invincible ally of the forces warring for a
higher, purer, more just and humane condition of life. In her
epoch-marking victories she has lost none of her old-time charms, the
wonderful refinement of sentiment, the delicacy of thought, the rich
soul life, the deep emotional nature, the strong moral character, pure
as the glistening snow-clad peaks in the midst of the moral
degradation which taints manhood. These have remained in their
pristine beauty since she has emerged from her age-long retirement
into a more influential sphere; in truth they have been strengthened
and made more impressive by the fuller development of her nature.

It must not be supposed, however, that her struggles are over. Before
she can or will attain an influence commensurate with her work, she
must emancipate herself from the bondage of _fashion_, which as
seriously reflects on her good judgment as it wrecks her health and
menaces the life and happiness of her offsprings. She must also
repudiate the age-hallowed insult dwelt upon in the old Edenic legend
of the fall of man, which for centuries has been brandished in her
face to teach her humility, and make her feel degraded in the presence
of her "lords and masters." An essentially barbarous conception, born
of a cowardly and brutal childhood age, and as unworthy of our day and
generation as is the hideous, old-time conception of God, in which He
was pictured as an angry and jealous Being, counselling the wholesale
slaughter of men and little children, and the prostitution of
daughters, wives, and mothers, by hordes of brutal invaders, whom He
chose to designate his _peculiar people_.

Again, womanhood must refuse to heed the admonitions of Paul, which
have for almost two thousand years been thundered from the pulpit, and
persis