Page:The Future of the Women's Movement.djvu/25

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THE FUTURE OF THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT


CHAPTER I


CAUSES OF THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT

"New occasions teach new duties; time makes ancient good uncouth;
 They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth;
 Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must pilgrims be,
 Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea,
 Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted key."


THE world is full of books about women,—most often alluded to in such books as "Woman." The vast majority of these books have been written by men, and until quite lately the few women who wrote about women confined themselves to repeating the precepts laid down by men. There were remarkable exceptions, of course: Mary Astell and Mary Wollstonecraft, Emily and Charlotte Brontë, George Sand and Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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