THE LADIES

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 227, 17 January 1885, Page 4

THE LADIES

WOMAN'S SPHERE,

The following is an interesting verbatim. extract fi-om a lecture on. " Woman : what she has been in the past, what she is, and what she will be in the future," 'delivered by Dr Hughes, on Sunday evening, at Abbott's Opera House. After some remarks on the Biblical account of the creation of woman, the lecturer went on to say : "But whatever may be the elements of [ which woman is constituted, it seems to be the opinion of some men that she is a dreadfully unstable compound, and that if we do not very carefully keep her out of the way of disintegrating influences, she will go off with a Avhizz, and become resolved into — well, they do not exactly know what, but they let lot us understand that it will be somethingvery nasty. Among the moral re-agents which threaten to decompose female human nature, unless woman can be kept out of their way, are political power and academical honours, and professional status, and the more remunerative occupations. In fact some men areue that it is wrong to take woman out of their own domestic sphere, because she is out of place as soon as she | leaves her household matters. . . . Now, such illogical arguments convince me that these wiseacres are totally ignorant of the matter they attempt to discuss — for the ! memory of woman's greatness and the proof of woman's capabilities stand deeply and indelibly engraven on the proudest trophies of human grandeur, and are amongst the most creditable of human acquisitions. Let me ask — Who laid the foundation of mighty | Babylon, the wonder of the world, the metropolis of that gigantic empire which extended from the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates to the oceans of the East and the "West, that empire which withstood a thousand tempests during more than 1400 years? who led an army of three and and a-half millions of troops across the Indus for the extension of dominions in the East, and for the long term of -±0 years gave laws to the fairest portion of the human race ? Who but Semiramis, the founder of the recently discovered Nineveh, the queen of queens of the East ! . Let those who write so contemptuously recollect that in the achievements of (Semiramis may be seen faculties as enlarged, policies as profound, energy as unbounded, perseverence as untiring, courage as dauntless, and ambition as towering as ever distinguished an Assyrian, a Persian, or a Grecian chief. Those who take the pains of examining into the capabilities of woman may soon discover that she is not only possessed of power to create as well as to exalt families, cities, states, and empires, but that she possesses ample power to destroy them. Witness the overthrow of the Trojan Commonwealth, which stands recorded as intimately associated in fame with the beauty and perfidy of Helen. In fact, it would be difficult to point out a nation or an empire that has not been either reared or ruined, controlled or managed, by the policy, skill, dexterity, or influence of woman Reflect for a moment on the famed women of modern Europe only, whose noble deeds or sparkling follies, whose heroic achievements, mighty geniuses, or public virtues, have cast a lustre on nearly all the principal states and kingdoms of any notoriety — such, for instance, as Margaret of ' Denmark, mistrpss of three realms ; Margaret of Valois, mother of Henry the Great, of France, an authoress, a poetess, and a queen ; Margaret, mother of Henry the Seventh, a patroness of learning, the founder of two colleges, who, though allied and related to thirty kings and queens, spent her leisure hours in literature ; . Maria Theresa, daughter of Charles VI., Archduchess of Austria, Empress of Germany, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, whose brilliant exploits and varied fortunes astonished Europe for the long space of 40 years ; Maria Antoinette, daughter of Maria Theresa, and wife of the ill-fated Louis, who, by her prodigality and injudicious counsels, not only caused her own ruin and that of her husband-king, but introduced a reign of terror into France. . . . Is it necessary to go on enumerating? for every well-read auditor is fully aware that women have sat in the cells of philosophers, walked in the groves of Academies, gathered laurels on Mount Parnassus, and received wreaths on Mount Helicon ; and that, in our day, women have charmed an admiring world with their finished productions of taste, and riveted the attention of the other sex by the profoundly of their understanding. . . . Even if we descend to popularity, wberc shall we find a triumvirate, of talent among English male writers to greatly surpass Mrs Somerville, Miss Cobbe, and Mrs Beecher Stowe ? Whoever disputes the capabilities of woman tacitly admits his own ignorance, for every well-read individual can call to mind a variety of | instances wherein woman has delighted, dazzled, astonished the other sex, by the splendour of her compositions, the grandeur of her ideas, and the rich and varied rei .sources of her genius, soaring above the head J of lordly man on the pinions of her towering | imagination. . . . It is not, however, in I eminently prominent situations that women I are seen to most advantage. It is in her J social, domestic, and family circle where

woman is beheld in all the fascination of her mighty influence. Heiice it is that she radiates her controlling power over the world, for though she may occasionally and properly exercise her transforming influence on her race as a heroine, or a ruler, her peculiar province is concentrated in the character of daughter, wife, mother, and mistress of her. family ; yet through man's injustice, to this day woman is not suitably educated for the fulfilment of these, her

special duties. . • . Woman is constituted by nature to hold her empire in the heart of man ; to sway a peaceful sceptre over the moral destinies of the human race ; inasmuch, as they who rock the cradle may by judicious management rule the world ; but man contravenes the intention of nature, and delights in making woman his plaything or his slave. The school, college, the church, state, and world derive their laws from family institutions ; and as the domestic circle is the area of which woman ought to be the light, life, power, and glory, it necessarily follows that from within this circle woman's mighty power may bo made to rebound with a force which shall agitate and influence the great interests of humanity. Consequently, until philanthropists shall succeed in elevating woman into her proper, her rightful position in society they never can effectually and efficiently elevate the universal family of mankind. If _we examine into the histories of nations and peoples and tribes, we shall therein find that the subjection of woman to the arbitrary will of man, is characteristic of countries steeped in ignorance, barbarism, and tyranny, and the elevation of woman to the intellectual dignity of man is characteristic of countries blessed with knowledge, civilization, and liberty. Let the despotic nations of the East regard the tender sex as slaves only to their uncontrolled dominion, but let men of this boastedly free colony prove their sense of justice, refinement, and nationality, by sharing with that sex all the social and mental pleasures of which they are every way as capable as ourselves."