It is a work. Christ resisted
temptation. But that was not all he had to do. That only showed him
ready for the great work before him. So woman has something more to do
than to beat back the tempter. If she can do this, she proves herself
made of the pure gold. She has a mission to engage in, a great work to
do. All women have. This work requires that they shall possess _energy_
as well as purity. They must have force of will to dare and to do. They
must dare to be and do that which is right; dare to face false customs;
dare to frown on fashion; dare to resist oppression; dare to assert
their rights; dare to be persecuted for righteousness' sake; dare to do
their own thinking and acting; dare to be above the silly pride and
foolish whims and prudish nonsense that enslave little minds. Woman is
now bound hand and foot by custom and law. She is only a thing. She is
not a conscious independent personality. She is not recognized as a
self-directing, responsible agent. She plays a second part. She is shut
out from all the higher aims and opportunities of life. Into no college
is she permitted to enter if she would cultivate her mind in the highest
walks of science and literature. At the feet of no learned professor may
she sit for wisdom. Every profession but the teacher's is barred against
her, and in that her services are considered not half at par. She can
not get more than half-pay for her labor. In law she is but a ninny; if
she is married she is less still, an absolute nonentity; her legal
existence is merged in that of her husband--the two become one, and he
is that one. Then in the every-day customs of life she is but a child.
She is not independent, free, energetic. The sun must not shine upon
her; she must not breathe the free air, nor bathe her limbs in the clear
stream, nor exercise in a healthful and profitable way. She must not go
away from her home without a protector; she must not step into the
street after nightfall without a watch; she must trail her dress in the
mud if others do; hang her bonnet behind her head if it is the fashion;
wear a bodiced waist tight as a vice if the milliner says so, and do and
submit to a thousand other things equally absurd and wrong. This is her
present position. To rise above this position and be what she is
capable of being, be strong in mind and purpose, be resolute in the
right, be herself untrammeled by custom or law, so far as any being can
be in a good society, it requir