a recent letter to Mrs. Miller, speaking of the time when we
last met, you say, 'Why was Mrs. Stanton so solemn?' to which I
reply: Ever since an old German emperor issued an edict, ordering
all the women under that flag to knit when walking on the highway,
when selling apples in the market place, when sitting in the parks,
because 'to keep women out of mischief their hands must be busy,'
ever since I read that, I have felt 'solemn' whenever I have seen
any daughters of our grand Republic knitting, tatting,
embroidering, or occupied with any of the ten thousand digital
absurdities that fill so large a place in the lives of Eve's
daughters.

"Looking forward to the scintillations of wit, the philosophical
researches, the historical traditions, the scientific discoveries,
the astronomical explorations, the mysteries of theosophy,
palmistry, mental science, the revelations of the unknown world
where angels and devils do congregate, looking forward to
discussions of all these grand themes, in meeting the eldest
daughter of David and Martha Wright, the niece of Lucretia Mott,
the sister-in-law of William Lloyd Garrison, a queenly-looking
woman five feet eight in height, and well proportioned, with
glorious black eyes, rivaling even De Stael's in power and pathos,
one can readily imagine the disappointment I experienced when such
a woman pulled a cotton wash rag from her pocket and forthwith
began to knit with bowed head. Fixing her eyes and concentrating
her thoughts on a rag one foot square; it was impossible for
conversation to rise above the wash-rag level! It was enough to
make the most aged optimist 'solemn' to see such a wreck of
glorious womanhood.

"And, still worse, she not only knit steadily, hour after hour, but
she bestowed the sweetest words of encouragement on a young girl
from the Pacific Coast, who was embroidering rosebuds on another
rag, the very girl I had endeavored to rescue from the maelstrom of
embroidery, by showing her the unspeakable folly of giving her
optic nerves to such base uses, when they were designed by the
Creator to explore the planetary world, with chart and compass to
guide mighty ships across the sea, to lead the sons of Adam with
divinest love from earth to heaven. Think of the great beseeching
optic n