‘But frankly, and in plain English, Bristley, am I to understand that the profession of arms ought, in your and Lesbia’s opinion, to be thrown open to the ladies equally with the other callings?’
‘Yes, decidedly, Mr Smeeth,’ answered Lesbia at once. ‘We can have no exceptions.’
‘Of course not,’ assented her uncle. ‘To admit that there may be any one thing suitable for men, but not for women, would weaken our position. If a thing be good for either sex, it is good for both; if it be bad for either, it is bad for both. Of course this doctrine is bounded by the possibilities of nature. Physically, a man cannot bear children; spiritually, a man can have no sanctity, either inherent or delegated.’
‘But he can lawfully pretend to have some, for a consideration,’ said Mr Smeeth dryly, at which the others tittered.
‘If his constituents please,’ was the ready reply. ‘If I refused pay to play the fool, I should be one.’
‘Never mind that, uncle,’ Lesbia checked him. ‘What were you going to say about women and arms?’
‘Why, I was going to say that preach as we will about the rights of morality to shape the conduct of the world, physical force will still remain in the background. Hence, so long as it is supposed that the female sex cannot compete with the male in the last resort, which is the resort to physical force, the rights we may concede to women will always appear as boons, as privileges existing upon sufferance. And previously to the march of modern science, this, no doubt, was actually the case. The bigger heavier animal, purposely trained in athletic habits from which the smaller though more highly organised animal was as purposely debarred, had an undeniable advantage over her with the club, the battle-axe, the bow, the cutlass. But those times are rapidly
