on culture, were she in sound physical condition;
but, alas! a healthy woman is scarcely to be found.
This point, namely, the prevailing invalidism of woman,
will come up for consideration by and by, when we inquire
into the causes of the present state of things.
It is none too early, however, to make a note of what
some physicians say in regard to it. “Half
of all who are born,” says one medical writer,
“die under twenty years of age; while four-fifths
of all who reach that age, and die before another
score, owe their death to causes which were originated
in their teens. This is a fact of startling import
to fathers and mothers, and shows a fearful responsibility.”
Another medical writer says, “Beside the loss
of so many children (nearly twenty-five per cent),
society suffers seriously from those who survive, their
health being irremediably injured while they are still
infants.... Ignorance and injudicious nursery
management lie at the root of this evil.”
We must be sure not to forget that this prevailing
invalidism of women, which is one hinderance to their
obtaining culture, can be traced directly back to
the ignorance of mothers, for this point has an important
bearing on the solution of our problem.
ONE CAUSE OF THE SITUATION.—A PART OF “WOMAN’S MISSION” CONSIDERED.
The question, How may work and culture be combined?
was recently submitted, in my hearing, to a highly
intelligent lady. She answered with a sigh, “It
can’t be done. I’ve tried it; but,
as things are now, it can’t be done.”
By “as things are now” she meant, with
the established ideas regarding dress, food, appearance,
style, and the objects for which woman should spend
her time and herself. Suppose we investigate
the causes of the present state of things, which, as
being a hinderance to culture, is to us so unsatisfactory.
A little reflection will enable us to discover several.
Chief among them all, I think, is one which may require
close inspection before it is recognized to be such.
It seems to me that the great underlying cause—the
cause of all the other causes—is the want
of insight, the unenlightemnent, which prevails concerning,
not what woman’s mission is, but the ways and
means by which she is to accomplish it. Let us
consider this.
Those who claim the right of defining it never can
say often enough that the true, mission of woman is
to train up her children rightly, and to make home
happy; and no doubt we all agree with them. But
have we, or have they, a full sense of what woman
requires to fit her even for the first of these duties?
Suppose a philosopher in disguise on a tour of observation
from some distant isle or planet should favor us with
a visit. He finds himself, we will say, on a spot
not a hundred miles from New York or Boston or Chicago.
Among the objects which attract his attention are
the little children drawn along in their little chaises.
