Female Suffrage | Page 5

satisfactorily proved.
Believing then in the greater physical powers of man, and in his
superiority, to a limited extent, in intellect also, as two sufficient
reasons for the natural subordination of woman as a sex, we have yet a
third reason for this subordination. Christianity can be proved to be the
safest and highest ally of man's nature, physical, moral, and intellectual,
that the world has yet known. It protects his physical nature at every
point by plain, stringent rules of general temperance and moderation.
To his moral nature it gives the pervading strength of healthful purity.
To his intellectual nature, while on one hand it enjoins full
development and vigorous action, holding out to the spirit the highest
conceivable aspirations, on the other it teaches the invaluable lessons of
a wise humility. This grand and holy religion, whose whole action is
healthful, whose restraints are all blessings--this gracious religion,
whose chief precepts are the love of God and the love of man--this
same Christianity confirms the subordinate position of woman, by
allotting to man the headship in plain language and by positive precept.
No system of philosophy has ever yet worked out in behalf of woman
the practical results for good which Christianity has conferred on her.
Christianity has raised woman from slavery and made her the
thoughtful companion of man; finds her the mere toy, or the victim of
his passions, and it places her by his side, his truest friend, his most

faithful counselor, his helpmeet in every worthy and honorable task. It
protects her far more effectually than any other system. It cultivates,
strengthens, elevates, purifies all her highest endowments, and holds
out to her aspirations the most sublime for that future state of existence,
where precious rewards are promised to every faithful discharge of
duty, even the most humble. But, while conferring on her these
priceless blessings, it also enjoins the submission of the wife to the
husband, and allots a subordinate position to the whole sex while here
on earth. No woman calling herself a Christian, acknowledging her
duties as such, can, therefore, consistently deny the obligation of a
limited subordination laid upon her by her Lord and His Church.
>From these three chief considerations--the great inferiority of physical
strength, a very much less and undefined degree of inferiority in
intellect, and the salutary teachings of the Christian faith--it follows
that, to a limited degree, varying with circumstances, and always to be
marked out by sound reason and good feeling, the subordination of
woman, as a sex, is inevitable.
This subordination once established, a difference of position, and a
consequent difference of duties, follow as a matter of course. There
must, of necessity, in such a state of things, be certain duties
inalienably connected with the position of man, others inalienably
connected with the position of woman. For the one to assume the duties
of the other becomes, first, an act of desertion, next, an act of
usurpation. For the man to discharge worthily the duties of his own
position becomes his highest merit. For the woman to discharge
worthily the duties of her own position becomes her highest merit. To
be noble the man must be manly. To be noble the woman must be
womanly. Independently of the virtues required equally of both sexes,
such as truth, uprightness, candor, fidelity, honor, we look in man for
somewhat more of wisdom, of vigor, of courage, from natural
endowment, combined with enlarged action and experience. In woman
we look more especially for greater purity, modesty, patience, grace,
sweetness, tenderness, refinement, as the consequences of a finer
organization, in a protected and sheltered position. That state of society
will always be the most rational, the soundest, the happiest, where each
sex conscientiously discharges its own duties, without intruding on
those of the other.

It is true that the world has often seen individual women called by the
manifest will of Providence to positions of the highest authority, to the
thrones of rulers and sovereigns. And many of these women have
discharged those duties with great intellectual ability and great success.
It is rather the fashion now among literary men to depreciate Queen
Elizabeth and her government. But it is clear that,
440 whatever may have been her errors--and no doubt they were
grave-- she still appears in the roll of history as one of the best
sovereigns not only of her own house, but of all the dynasties of
England. Certainly she was in every way a better and a more successful
ruler than her own father or her own brother-in-law, and better also
than the Stuarts who filled her throne at a later day. Catherine of Russia,
though most unworthy as a woman, had a force of intellectual ability
quite beyond dispute, and which made itself felt