joy of the hearts nearest to her (if she is of the right temper, she will make it her primary aim to be both); let her be attractive, and sweet, and comely-nay, let her be beautiful-it is all onein an organ which takes thought for the poor; which champions the down-trodden; which has always a tender word to spare for the sweated seamstress, a pitying one for the "horse o'erdriven," she sees herself mirrored as harsh and sour and prudish and physically repulsive—a gaunt, ill-dressed, sexless monster, pour rire. Here it is invariably our poor Sonya's ugly hat and unfashionable frock that are thrust into prominence, and never a glimpse do we catch of the soul in her eyes, or the hunger in her heart, or the power to add to the sum of human achievement in her brain. Is it vain to point out that such a handling of the woman who has interests other than the study of fashion-plates and the interchange of "feline amenities," is anachronistic as well as unjust? Is it useless to entreat from a journal which is a power in our midst, as well as a perennial pleasure, a tardy recognition of the difference between the real, salutary woman-movement, and the froth and scum that gather on the crest of that steadilyadvancing wave? Let me close with words more winged and weighty than any of my own could be-words of a patriot and seer, who had that touch of idealism, of enthusiasm, without which nothing is great, nothing is holy, and who was profoundly convinced of the necessity of modifying the conventional opinion of woman, if man was ever to attain to his full stature-Joseph Mazzini : "Consider woman therefore as the partner and companion, not merely of your joys and sorrows, but of your thoughts, your aspirations, your studies, and your endeavours after social amelioration. Consider her your equal, in your civil and political life. Be ye the two human wings that lift the soul towards the Ideal we are destined to attain." * * The Duties of Man, Joseph Mazzini, London. Chapman and Hall, 1862. Marriage Rejection and "The common problem,—yours,—mine,—every one's, Is-not to fancy what were fair in Life Provided it could be ;—but finding first What may be, then find how to make it fair Up to our means: No abstract, intellectual plan of Life, Quite irrespective of Life's plainest laws— Browning. Marriage Rejection and Marriage AMONG the many complicated social problems at present engaging the attention of thoughtful minds, there is none which has greater and graver claims upon it than the question, What is to be the future of marriage? It is a question which touches at so many different points upon so many sensitive places of our human natureso many sanctities, beliefs, convictions, interests, prejudices that there has been, hitherto, a certain hesitation in approaching it. It has been pondered in private and discussed en petit comité rather than publicly canvassed, such references as are made to it in the press and elsewhere being chiefly of a veiled and oblique character— not of the sort which he who runs may read. * And yet a very real and even painful interest in it is spreading day by day, and day by day it is assuming proportions which seem to demand that * It is needless to point out that this remark was more applicable eight years ago than it is now. In the interval, discussion has become general and open. The enemies of marriage have thrown off the mask, and its champions have been increasingly constrained to plain-speaking. |