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 WHY ARE WOMEN REDUNDANT?

A STATE of society so mature, so elaborate, so highly organized as ours cannot fail to abound in painful and com- plicated problems. One after another these excite attention. The philosopher seeks to solve them; the philanthropist endeavours to relieve the suffering, and the moralist to cure the evil, they involve or imply. There is enough, alas, in the various forms of wrong, of error, and of wretchedness which multiply around us, not only to make our hearts bleed, but to bewilder our understanding, to disturb our conscience, to shame our indolence and ignorance, and al- most to stagger and to strain our faith; and enough also to afford ample occupation to that vast amount of restless, pry- ing, energetic, impatient benevolence, which is perhaps the most remarkable, as it is certainly the most hopeful, feature of this age. It would seem as if, in this respect, our strength was equal to our day,' and our resources to the work which lies before us: all that appears necessary is, that the diagnosis should be complete before the medicine is ad- ministered, and that the physician should be sure of his pre- scription before the surgeon begins to operate. For ourselves, we can say that we never despaired of the Republic;' we have never done the Creator the wrong of doubting (to use an expression we once heard from Dr Chalmers) that the world is so constituted that if we were morally right, we should