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    198 FROM PARIS.

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    ._———— —^^»— ^ A Phil 17, 1860. To The C...

    Birmingham , _Laverj _^ ool and Manchester , and more particularly of their connection withthe laws of life and health . ; resuming" thus _v—

    , " Far from me be the thought of a discontented allusion to those writers of my own country who have treated the same topics with

    so much eclat . No ; I do not regret the noise which the two books " La _Justice" and " L _' Amom" have made in the literary worldsince

    these works have been more useful than could have been any thoug , hts proceeding from a woman ' s pen ( gut _atirait eu le tort de naitre cVune

    , fomme . ) I would even add that the excessive severity of one of the two authors has not much alarmed me , any more than the extreme

    indulgence of the other . " Many readersmale and femalehave been angry at the too

    , , rough _language of the brilliant logician , who , adoring only one divine attributejusticefinds it just that the weakest by nature

    should be inferior , and almost , enslaved before the law . Others have cried out against the , excessive compassion with -which a good genius

    wishes to inspire the lord and master towards his melancholy but inevitable female companion .

    " It is , however , necessary to recognise the good produced by the labors of our two celebrated authors , ( Proudhon and Michelet , ) in

    order that we may not appear partial when we add that it is not of a lasting nature . They have destroyed the joking spiritand

    , cast aside the sing * -song into which writers on "womanhood invariably fell before their time ; they have given that seriousness to the

    subject which I noticed before as a happy novelty . So far as the future is concerned , they have worked less nobly in its interests by

    vulgarising a great principle under the form of a half truth . " To deduce from the physical weakness of the woman that she is

    intellectually inferior , and almost morally irresponsible , is to twist entirely the analogies which exist between body and soul . For the

    law of harmony , which miglit be made to serve so high a purpose in directing educational reformsis logically abused when we

    at-, tempt to deny that virtuous energy of character may be combined with limited intellectual power , or that a noble soul may dwell in a

    feeble body . At ail events , this is a very bad doctrine to hold up before a generation weak in physical health , and much more given

    to self-indulgence than to heroic exaltation . There is not , therefore , in our present condition , any advantage in . prolonging

    philosophical discussions which can neither stimulate social progress , nor arouse and nourish that of the individual . Let us abandon scientific

    and poetical theories about woman , the family , etc . ; and let us preach respect for individual effort . This is what we ought urgently

    to demand from those of our literary men who possess the power of influencing _jmblic opinion on this question . Let individuality be

    respected among us , and womanhood and the family will regain , the one its forfeited dignitythe other the unity it has lost .

    , " I have said thus much upon the social progress shown in the in landin order that the le which

    condition of women Eng , examp

    198 From Paris.

    198 FROM PARIS .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1860, page 198, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051860/page/54/