Page:An address to women (Goodwin).djvu/10

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AN ADDRESS TO WOMEN.

good; I should not be the least surprised if you were a good deal better. At all events you have as much right to be talked to, if you are willing. I know you like talking yourselves; but if you like to be talked to as well, I do not see why you should not. And if we by talking to you can give you a little innocent pleasure, and do you a little good, I think that you and we shall have spent a tolerably useful Saturday evening.

In a certain sense men and women are equal; but there is nevertheless a good deal of difference between the two. There are some things that a man can do, and you cannot do; and on the other hand, there are a number of things that you can do and men cannot do. I am old-fashioned enough to think it a wise thing that men should be men, and women should be women. It is too much the fashion, I think, with some women to make themselves as like men as they possibly can. That is a mistake. There are a great many things which a man has to do, and which you have not to do. If there was a sack of coals to be carried to the other end of Carlisle, I should choose a man rather than any one of you to carry it. That is man's work; and the best arrangement is that the man should do that which is appropriate to him, and the woman should do that