Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/166

150 are equipped for the work of life, while the women have hitherto had to attach their existence chiefly to that of the men, and are in general not brought up in a way to be able at once to stand on their own feet. Most women, therefore, are still in want of one more requisite than the men, namely, the education for work.

But let us make it clear to ourselves that one step in progress always presupposes another. If we, therefore, have to recognize the inability of most women under the present circumstances to gain for themselves an independent existence, it does not follow from this that the same conditions will hold for the future. Let us make this clear by laying down several points.

1) The State of the future secures to women as well as to men, free of charge, an all-sided opportunity for the development of their native abilities.

2) Education in the future will be considerably facilitated and more equalized between the two sexes, since the sciences become ever more simplified, popularized, and their results made more accessible to every one, while at present their secrets are still hidden behind the learned barricades of the scholars' caste. In the future many a lay person will know more than many a professor knows now, for the chaff of unnecessary knowledge will be winnowed away, and true knowledge will reduce everything to the pure kernel. If we consider hereby that women have the same or greater