Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/20

4 the most studied indifference towards the feminine sex. You will not have to accuse the author of these pages of hypocrisy. He has given complete expression to his opinions regarding the revolution; he has done so regarding religion; and he is now doing so regarding the two sexes. Give him your support by reciprocating his frankness, help him to examine the nature and the needs of both sexes, in order thereby to establish the claims which your sex has to make. You will share with me the satisfaction that he who speaks his convictions openly and completely before all the world, and in spite of all the world, not only acts more nobly, but also more successfully, than all the reserve of prudence and all the hypocrisy of cowardice are able to act.

The object to be gained here is not only to purify humanity and the sense of justice from the dross of a false morality and vulgar prejudice; nor is our task limited to the rescue of love and marriage, which are in danger of perishing entirely in this venal and pious world; it is at the same time also necessary to open up to your sex a perspective view of the position which the era of liberty, towards which our development is tending, will assign to it in society. It will be seen that the right, the happiness, and the lot of woman is still more dependent on the attainment of complete liberty than that of man, who at least finds a partial compensation for liberty in the struggle