Page:Women of distinction.djvu/18

X The nineteenth century, "woman's century," as Victor Hugo aptly terms it, marks the acme of her development, but there has been no time when her power was not felt. From the earliest period, when Eve was beguiled of the serpent and in turn tempted Adam, down through the ages when Sappho sang and Hypatia showed what genius repressed could yet accomplish, woman's influence has been potent. That influence, however, is greatly enhanced, both in the quiet walks of life, where fate and preference retain the majority, and in the more public ways, where duty calls an increasing number, by the recognition of woman's equality with man. This belief has steadily made its growth among nations in proportion as they advanced from savagery and the butchery and brutality by which it is attended. As war waned and the arts of peace prevailed, as the necessity for mere bodily strength decreased, and more attention was paid to the cultivation of mind, woman's claim for recognition grew in popular favor and esteem.

Even in this age, however, there are some who refuse to see any good in what is sometimes termed the emancipation of woman. Because many noble and lovable women have been content to abide beneath the shadow of the home-roof, and have never sought to extend their influence beyond the domestic circle, they deny the fitness of any woman's doing so, regardless of the difference in the nature and circumstances of different individuals, and even of the fact that many women have no roof-tree under which to abide. The "progressive