ere easier to change earth to water, and sea to land,
than it is to make a womanly woman consent to appear manly. Her God
made her a woman. It is not a fault. It is a glory. The bird that
skims the wave would not exchange places with the bird that goes to
meet the sun; but this is not to bring a charge against the eagle or
the swan.

One more truth, and then we will pass to the consideration of
the lessons discoverable in woman's nature. All the Scripture
requirements, such as refer to the plaiting of the hair, to being
uncovered in public, are said to refer to the customs of the East, and
not to bind woman in this age of progress. The principle covered by
those requirements then, rules now. Paul said, Let not a Christian
woman break through any of the restraints of womanhood, and so appear
as do the harlots, with uncovered faces and with plaited hair, who
mingle freely with men, and are shorn of that modesty and weakness so
becoming woman. Woman's right to be a woman implies the right to be
loved, to be respected as a woman, to be married, to bring forth to
the world the product of that love; and woman's highest interests are
promoted by defending and maintaining this right.

There are those who object to the word _service_, and claim that those
who take the Bible as authority wish to reduce woman to slavery. No
charge could be more absurd; and God's care for woman is manifest,
both in the teachings of the Bible and in the constitution of the
race. Woman owes to Christianity all she enjoys. Leave her to be
subject to the conditions imposed on her by unregenerated manhood or
womanhood, and you leave her to become either a thing in society, or
else reduce her to a level with the beasts of burden. In old savage
and pagan tribes the severest burdens of physical toil were laid upon
her. She was valued for the same reason that men prize their most
useful animals, or as a means of gratifying sensual and selfish
desires. Even in the learned and dignified forms of modern paganism,
the wife is the slave rather than the companion of her husband. She
is kept apart from him. The education of her mental faculties is
neglected. She is not allowed to walk with him; she must walk behind
him. She must not eat with him, but eat after he has done, and eat
what _he leaves_. She must not sleep until he is asleep, nor remain
asleep after he is awake. If she is sitting down, and he comes into
the room, she must rise up. She must bow to no o