Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/641

Rh the other; and the result, as far as their power is concerned, is a standstill, frequently followed by positive retrogression. Those whose work or sympathy might otherwise be enlisted in some branch of woman's development, simply look on such extravagances with amusement or pity, and await the next edition of feminine fantastics. A little more conservatism is needed to tip the balance in favor of sure and steady progress. There is no longer need for the agitator, when the question, in its different phases, is being discussed in legislative halls and by the fireside, by thoughtful men and women the world over; but there is great need for the conservative moderator, and in just that capacity should the mothers of the land make their power felt. They occupy a position, by its very nature, powerful beyond the possibilities of any other position on earth—powerful with God-given rights, which admit of no question and need no acknowledgment. They are burdened with responsibility, it is true, but any responsibility rightly met is a power in itself. There is no class of women who stand upon such vantage ground, who can so well exemplify all that is essentially feminine, and at the same time demand, by their rights and responsibilities, any outside aid, whether it be of higher education or suffrage, or whatever it be. There is no class of women who know so well the delights of all the dear feminine prerogatives, the power of those exquisite qualities, grace, delicacy, and sweetness, and at the same time who feel more deeply the need of any and all means of enlightenment and advancement. There are no women better fitted to temper the present discussion; none who can better offer sympathy, yet counsel moderation, to those restless sisters whose demands so often grow out of bitter personal experience and too often rise to a discordant clamor. Of course, this view has been of mothers as a class. There are, alas! pitiful exceptions—women who do not admit the responsibilities of motherhood, and women who dare not demand the rights which motherhood gives them. Such women present problems which can not be dealt with here. Certainly these remarks may apply to every mother who will exercise a certain just self-appreciation, who will devote a little time and attention to the consideration of this question, and her own duties and responsibilities in relation to it. Is it not possible for such women to show that womanliness does not mean weakness—that the very life of all lives the most womanly needs for its right living not goodness only, but wisdom, knowledge, and freedom? On the other hand, ought they not to demonstrate that in this womanliness essentially, in the clinging to it and emphasizing it, they will gain a peculiar power which nothing else can give? It is surely a strength and freedom, not to be left behind in the march onward to new strength and new freedom. It is a quality