The attempt to bring about a healing compromise in which the two shall be adjusted in proper relation is not an easy one.  It is difficult to distinguish between the outward act of him who in following one legitimate claim has been led into the temporary violation of another, and the outward act of him who deliberately renounces a just claim and throws aside all obligation for the sake of his own selfish and individual development.  The man, for instance, who deserts his family that he may cultivate an artistic sensibility, or acquire what he considers more fulness of life for himself, must always arouse our contempt.  Breaking the marriage tie as Ibsen’s “Nora” did, to obtain a larger self-development, or holding to it as George Eliot’s “Romola” did, because of the larger claim of the state and society, must always remain two distinct paths.  The collision of interests, each of which has a real moral basis and a right to its own place in life, is bound to be more or less tragic.  It is the struggle between two claims, the destruction of either of which would bring ruin to the ethical life.  Curiously enough, it is almost exactly this contradiction which is the tragedy set forth by the Greek dramatist, who asserted that the gods who watch over the sanctity of the family bond must yield to the higher claims of the gods of the state.  The failure to recognize the social claim as legitimate causes the trouble; the suspicion constantly remains that woman’s public efforts are merely selfish and captious, and are not directed to the general good.  This suspicion will never be dissipated until parents, as well as daughters, feel the democratic impulse and recognize the social claim.

Our democracy is making inroads upon the family, the oldest of human institutions, and a claim is being advanced which in a certain sense is larger than the family claim.  The claim of the state in time of war has long been recognized, so that in its name the family has given up sons and husbands and even the fathers of little children.  If we can once see the claims of society in any such light, if its misery and need can be made clear and urged as an explicit claim, as the state urges its claims in the time of danger, then for the first time the daughter who desires to minister to that need will be recognized as acting conscientiously.  This recognition may easily come first through the emotions, and may be admitted as a response to pity and mercy long before it is formulated and perceived by the intellect.

The family as well as the state we are all called upon to maintain as the highest institutions which the race has evolved for its safeguard and protection.  But merely to preserve these institutions is not enough.  There come periods of reconstruction, during which the task is laid upon a passing generation, to enlarge the function and carry forward the ideal of a long-established institution.  There is no doubt that many women, consciously and unconsciously, are struggling with