Page:Sexology.djvu/44

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and in all offices of honor and emolument now monopolized by the "sterner sex." This heresy has been christened by the seductive cognomen of "Woman's Rights." Set in motion by a singular class of advocates, it would almost seem to have become epidemic. As though dissatisfied with the irksome lullaby and the wearisome routine of household duties, hosts have joined the invading forces, and now their conventions, their speeches, their special organs, and their sophistical catch-words have assumed so great proportions that they really seem on the verge of securing political prominence.

The fierce and indomitable energy of the American people, which has survived the most mighty social and political revolution of this world, must and will have some fiery excitement with which to occupy itself; and, having amused itself with the labor and the Colonial questions, it has seized upon the bauble of Woman's Rights, and bids fair to dignify it into a terrible engine of destruction. Let us examine what it will do for our daughters in its present aspect, and what if carried to successful operation. The mere discussion of such a revolution as a possibility, the bare toleration of the idea, is sufficient in itself to injure the mind and to operate powerfully upon the imagination of these impressionable creatures—to excite in them feelings of indignation and dissatisfaction with their present condition. Every argument that ingenuity can suggest, is brought to bear in assuring them that they are deprived of certain inherent "rights" by an unjust and tyrannical age. It is of but little moment to them what these so-called rights may be; the feeling that they exist, and that they are unjustly withheld, is sufficient to occasion a sort of sentimental rebellion dangerous to tranquil repose and to feminine modesty. If carried out in actual practice, this