Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/999

904 years and is still at the head of this admirable society. She writes me:

If we are asked whether we would have women enter public life, whether we would wish them to become professors in the university, clergymen in the church, and lawyers at the bar, as is the case in America, we should make no response, cor they are but idle questions. These demands have not yet been made in Germany, nor will they be made for a long time to come, if ever. But why peer into the future? We have today many institutions, many customs, which past centuries would have looked upon as contrary to Divine and human law. In this connection we would say with Sancho Panza: "What is, is able to be."

The German philosopher, Herr von Kirchmann, is more decided in his views concerning the future of his countrywomen. In one of his last works, entitled "Questions and Dangers of the Hour" (Zettfragen und Abenteuer) is a chapter on "Women in the Past and Future," where it is shown that the female sex has been gradually gaining its freedom, and the prediction is made that the day is near at hand when women will obtain their complete independence and will compete with men in every department of life, not excepting politics.

Turning to the other great Germanic nation, Austria, we find still less progress than in the north. In fact, the movement in the south is little more than a question of woman's self-support. The important problem of woman's education is not yet resolved in Germany, and in Austria still less has been done. "In two particulars," writes a Berlin correspondent, "Austria may be said to be in advance of Germany. The admission of women to the university does not present such insurmountable difficulties, and her employment in railroad, post, and telegraph offices does not encounter such strong opposition." But it must not be supposed from this statement that the Austrian universities are open to women. "Our universities are shut against women," Professor Wendt, of Troppau, informs me; "but they may pass the same examinations as boys who have finished their preparatory studies, though it is distinctly stated in the women's diplomas that they may not continue their studies in the university." The professors, however, sometimes allow foreign girls to attend lectures. Professor Bruhl, of Vienna, for example, has lectured to men and women on anatomy. The Academy of Fine Arts at Vienna is not open to women, though the Conservatory of Music is much frequented by them. In 1880, in fact, three women re-