The Gospel of Woman.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1818, 1 March 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Gospel of Woman.

It did not need Mr. Moncure D. Conway to come all the way from America to preach what I may sail the Gospel of Woman. Those who have caiefully read the literature of the period must have noticed that a remarkable change has occurred within the past twenty-five years, and that woman from being a secondary character in novels has taken the first place. Regard them as we may, it cannot be denied that novels are the mirror of national life. We can know more of any people by reading two or three of their novels than if we studied the newspapers for half a century. The reporter simply draws a skeleton, which the reader may clothe as he pleases, but the novelist fills in the outline and presents life as it really is. His portraits may be distorted by his own prejudice or imagination, but the keen critic can soon disci iminate between what is the product of the author's individuality and the product of observations. And if there is one thing which has been more noticeable in the fiction of the past ten or fifteen years it is the extraordinary space filled by the female characters, to the complete dwarfing of those of the other sex. It might be said that this is caused by the popularity of so many female novelists, which class bids fair to monopolise this branch of literature. This is hardly tenable, as female novelists generally delight in making the hero the central figure, though of course they generally invest him with such absurd attributes that the result almost always borders on burlesque — even in the case of that powerful writer, Ouida. But male as well as female novelists are remarkable for the prominence given to the women. William Black, Hardy, and Blackmore, and all ultra popular novelists rely upon their female characters. It is therefore evident that this great change in literature is caused by a corresponding change in the public, of whose views novels, after all, are but the reflex. That this is a tremendous revolution we can easily see if we turn to the masters of imagination. Not one of them has made woman other than a subordinate. Shakespeare is looked upon as the greatest of human geniuses, but in none of his works does woman fill the first place. In many of the greatest of his tragedies she is but an episode, a factor, and an important one, in the general result. Ophelia has little if anything to do with the action of Hamlet. Lady Macbeth fades out of the tragedy before the end. The women in Julius Caesar are shadows. In the comedies woman holds a high place, but even in these she is subordinate to the male characters. None of Shakespeare's plays are written as novels are -written now, simply to illustrate the development of a woman , the male characters being like the walking gentlemen on the stage. The greatest poet of antiquity, Homer, the author of a tale of "Bride of Troy Divine," make 3 man and the fortunes of man his main theme. " Tom Jones " is regarded by the best critics as the greatest novel ever written, or for that matter ever likely to be written. The lovely Sophia Western certainly takes a leading part in that work, and is a charming character, but she only plays up to Tom Jones, to use a stage expression. I might go over all the great works of imagination of the past, but it would be with the same result. Coming nearer our own times and taking up the works of the masters of the nineteenth century, we will find the same state of things. Sir Walter Scott's novels give man the first place, though woman, as is natural, exerts a powerful influ- .

ence on the story. Thackeray, who moulded his stories upon those of Fielding and Smollett, is essentially masculine. Dickens never committed the artistic error of making woman the central figure, to which the male characters were merely subordinate. Even in the works of Mrs. Radcliffe we do not find this perversion. It is in the novels of Mrs. Burnoy, Miss Austin, and Miss Edgewoith that we can trace the beginnings of a species of fiction that appears, viewed in a critical light, as distorted, and untrue to life and art. For in real life, at least up to the present, woman plays but a secondry part, though her subtle and scarcely perceptible influences may really be the movinor spring of the great wheel of action. From an art point of view a work of fiction in which a woman is the central, and, indeed, the only figure ia like a picture in one tint without a touch of the primary colors. A picture in worcU should be the same as one in colors ; there should be a perfect harmony. If the stronger colors are not introduced, they should at least be suggested. Yet the fiction of the past few years lias almost exclusively depended upon delineations of female character and the fortunes of wamen. As the fate of woman entirely depends on man, fiction of thid kind would bo ridiculous but for the conviction its existence must carry, that there has been an important change, and that of late years the gospel of woman has made society a convert. This worship of woman, this attempt to raise her to a position for which she is not intended by nature, and the attainment of which, by her, would destroy society, is, to my mind, one of the dangers of the age, because it disturbs the balance created by Nature and by God. Yet some men rejoice in it. Not long since, a lecturer proclaimed that he was glad to think man was becoming more womanly, and woman was advancing to an equality with him. Where this gentleman made the mistake, was, in thinking that woman and man were ever other than equal. Because woman did not do what man did, that was no sign of inferiority or inequality. Woman and man are in reality two utterly distinct beings, created for very different purposes, but, by the wisest of all laws, ever dependent upon each other, and so making the great harmony of creation. Man is the worker and the protector, and, therefore, he has been given a stronger body and a larger brain. Woman is the mother and the wife, the home dweller, and for that reason she has been endowed, on a whole, with finer feelings and instincts, with a purer mind, and with a larger fund of affection. In her own sphere she is peerless, the very master-piece of the Creator. There she has no rival. But her advocates, now-a-days, the preachers of the Gospel of Woman, would take her from her own place, and maintain that she can take her position in the battle-field, the Legislature, the field, and the workshop. To place her there would be to unsex her. She could not become a man ; then she would be a kind of neuter, without the charms that make woman irressistible, or the attributes that make man the master. The less successful the Gospel of Woman advocates are, in this direction, the better. But we may comfort ourselves that Nature is too strong for them ; that woman, thank Heaven, will be woman always, tender, trusting, affectionate, spurring fathers, husbands, brothers, and lovers, on in the battle of life, and making this existence brighter and better. While, however, holding these opinions, I am strongly impressed with the idea that in the older countries a revision of the occupations of men and women is urgently necessary. In such countries there is a never ceasing emigration of young men, who seek better fields, and the result is, that the proportions of the sexes are altered — there are more -women than men. This proce&s is noticeable even in the more thicklypopulated parts of Australia, though the proportions are so far maintained. Queensland has more males in proportion than Victoria or Tasmania. Man should, in such lands be kept to his proper sphere, and woman be permitted to occupy the positions for which they are suitable. Woman has not yet obtained her right position in many employments. Her talents are very suitable for commerce ; and many vocations now monopolised by men should really be carried on by females. What is more absurd or wrong than to see a strapping six-feet male engaged in selling laces and tapes or in like employments. Still even in these directions care should be exercised not to lose sight of the great fact that woman never developes into a perfect being except as an adjunct of man ; as his helpmate ; as wife and mother. Those who advocate her independence have only to look at the result when she does obtain it, as in the case of factory girls. As to the other result hoped for by its disciples and of this gospel of woman that man will become more womanly, I do not think any sensible person wishes to see it. Man is undoubtedly refined and bettered by association with pure women, but that does not mean that he becomes womanly. A womanish man is of all being 3 the most despicable, just as a manly woman is the creature most to be dreaded. God in his wisdom has shaped out the destiny and functions of the male and female, and made them to admirably dovetail into each other ; and the tinkerings of epicene men and masculine women only mar his handiwork. Doxald Camekon.