average. The fact that, by an unwritten law, a woman must not take, and indeed does not want to take, the initiative, has very little to do with the extremely limited choice which modern conditions impose upon Englishwomen.

Contrast the estimate of woman's social importance here with that which prevails in the newer countries, where women are not in the majority, but in the minority. Certainly it would seem that any disturbance of the normal balance is attended by more or less of social evil. But though we have heard something of the mischievous effects upon the modesty of women in communities where they are in the minority, it appears clear that an immodesty which proceeds from a low estimate of woman's dignity and importance must be worse and more degrading to the whole community than the sort which arises from an exaggerated estimate. Let anyone who doubts this carefully observe the reckless conduct, language, and bearing of the girls of the present day in their social intercourse with men. There has always been a type of woman who has been ready to sacrifice everything she ought to hold sacred for the sake of 'a good marriage.' There is now a type in every class, but more particularly in the lower and middle classes, which will sacrifice all for marriage.

The facts from the standpoint of which these observations have been made are beyond dispute, and must be admitted and met in any attempt to counteract the evil conditions for which they are so largely accountable. Also, they can no more be altered than ignored, so far as it is possible to see at present. Counteractions and palliations there may be, however.

There has been during the last twenty or thirty years a strong and growing determination to educate girls in such a manner that in the matter of livelihood they shall be independent of marriage. One may notice, though, that the possibility of a girl remaining single is generally put down to any cause rather than to the principal We are reminded that the standard of living has risen so much higher that people are afraid to face married life on the extremely limited incomes their fathers and mothers began upon; that girls now are able to earn their own living, and prefer to remain single; that the conveniences of life in cities have made it possible for men to obtain comfort and relaxation which thirty years ago they could only obtain in their own homes. All this is true, but is not the whole truth; not one of these is even the principal reason why one can count so many unmarried women among one's acquaintance. But the undisputed fact remains, and in the circumstances of the case the modern idea of the education of girls is a piece of practical wisdom. Only the reformers have not gone far enough-they have not even seen far enough. It is a general charge against social reformers that their ideals are too high, too far-reaching, and only serve to discourage and alarm more moderate and more timid

souls. Well, at last the reformers are avenged in some measure. Here is a case of ideals realised; but the ideals are not high enough, and the present case of the realised reform is a deplorable failure to grapple with an important part of the problem. A new adjustment of ideals is necessary. Parents and educationalists have contented themselves with making girls independent of marriage in a material sense, as if that were all that was necessary to ensure their happiness and well-being. But they have quite overlooked the most necessary thing. The girl is still taught that marriage is her proper sphere-so it is-but the point is made of far too much importance, and is emphasised and pressed too much. Marriage is man's proper sphere also, but it is not considered necessary to insist upon it all the time, and with such vehemence.

Those who have the training of boys wisely aim at the highest possible development both in body and mind of the human being; the practice often falls short of the ideal, but that is the ideal. Now, what is the aim in the training of girls? To make them as perfect women as possible; not as perfect human beings as possible, but as perfect women. The idea of sex is never lost sight of, a method of education which would be positively dangerous in the case of boys, and which is only saved from the full consequences of its foolishness by the better moral nature and less strongly developed animal passions of girls. But still the girl grows up, having learnt to look at everything from the woman's standpoint, not from the larger standpoint of humanity. She never loses the consciousness of sex; it colours all her ideas; and probably in this fact lies the solution of the mystery that men are so often utterly baffled when they try to understand women. How can they possibly expect to do so? Men use their trained human intelligence and are not all the time locking at questions and events as male creatures. They forget that women, broadly speaking, are only using half their consciousness, the other half, the very one which would be common ground between them, being stunted or dormant. The emotional side of woman's nature is already strong, quite enough so for her own happiness; then why, in the name of all that is reasonable, foster it and cultivate it until it overpowers the intellectual and critical side? Better far to teach her that she ought to have more than one outlook upon life, that she ought not to stake all her chances of happiness on the satisfaction of one part of her nature, on the always risky speculation of marriage. It has often been said that marriage means much more to a woman than to a man; that marriage is a woman's whole life, while it is only an incident in the life of a man. This is of course the extreme view, but there is much truth in it: truth, that is, as a matter of observation of actual life, but wholly false as an ideal. Marriage ought to be much more than an incident in a man's life; but, on the other hand, it ought not to be the whole of a woman's

life. Certainly this view has generally been urged upon women by men-it has suited their convenience-and women are always only too ready to believe what men tell them.

The great century whose record is now for ever closed will live in history as the birth-century of many great ideas, but none will be more important to the future of the world than this: that in this century God has chosen to reveal new and great truths to women, direct to women. In other ages women have helped in the great world-movements, and have done noble service for the causes of truth and righteousness. But they have followed men, followed them in truth and followed them in error. Great women have ledJoan of Arc led-but they have been the few brilliant and solitary exceptions, they have utterly failed to inspire and to lead other women. A marvellous change has come; women can lead, and women can lead other women as well as men. They are just as likely to lead both men and women into error as are the men leaders, but there is now this guarantee of safety : the world will never again listen to the voice of one half of mankind, while the other half is dumb on every question of social, national, and international import

ance.

But do the women leaders altogether realise that the struggle is not ended, that it has only begun? Women have won for women in an incredibly short time, when compared with the measure of the victory, a large and broad freedom. Freedom, however, is not the end, it is only the beginning. It is a vantage-ground, a sure foundation, upon which all strength and beauty may stand secure. Already the more intellectual and clear-sighted women have discovered that personality is a greater power than convention, and that the soil of freedom is favourable to its growth and development. And it is conceivable that the remarkable sweeping away of the old safeguards, however chaotic may appear the state of things at present, is only a symptom of the coming of a time when all human life shall be purer, yet freer, and when women shall rely, not as they do now, upon their weakness, but upon their strength.

Meanwhile a note of warning may well be sounded. There is a distinct danger that, in their haste to realise their own really high and noble conceptions, these strong ones may commit a great wrong against the weak. Safeguards are for the defence of the weak, and the strong have no right to sweep them down just because they themselves can do without them. And probably the great work which, in the new century, lies before the women who are passionately desirous of seeing the dreams of the old century for the inspiring and uplifting of their own sex become accomplished facts will be less in the direction of demanding more liberty, and more in the direction of helping the great uncultured, unaspiring, dead-level mass of women to use liberty heroically, to teach them to estimate

themselves at their true value, to help them to cultivate to the very utmost every power of soul, mind, and body, in the sure conviction that life-life itself-of which marriage is only a condition, even though the most important condition-holds more than enough of wonder, and interest, and work, and play, and high exalted purpose, to fill and overflow it, as long as love and reason shall illuminate it.

HARRIETT E. MAHOOD,

EMIGRATION FOR GENTLEWOMEN

FAMILIAR as I am with the actual conditions of colonial life, and the terrible competition for work amongst women of the cultured classes at home, it has always been a surprise to me that a system of emigration for ladies, very much more thorough and widespread than any now in existence, has not been adopted before this. Apart from fifty other considerations, it is a sin against the Gospel of Political Economy-which gospel, I am told, cannot err. For if there is one demand which is loud and unequivocal, it is the demand for the Englishwoman's help in our colonies, in certain parts of the United States, and indeed in all parts of the world now being colonised by our countrymen. And if there is one instance of there being no supply in response to the demand, it is this instance the failure of women to answer the call to fields of useful work and a potential sphere of happiness in the new countries of the world.

Although it may seem surprising that in a great colonial empire no widespread or thorough system of inter-emigration for young women of education and energy should exist, it is scarcely astonishing that these young women do not come forward individually to respond to a demand which cannot but be known to them. Obvious indeed are the difficulties which lie between the home here in England and the home there in the colonies. In the first place, perhaps, the fitting diffidence of woman has checked so assertive and unusual an act as an independent emigration to a strange country and a new. Many have gone out with relatives and friends, or under the auspices of the one or two societies which have been so sensible as to make this their business; yet they are but a tithe of those who are wanted, for whom a 'berth' and a hearty welcome are waiting if they will but go.

Another and an equally serious difficulty to many of those who would be willing as well as glad to go, is the consciousness of their lacking the suitable talents to take with them. Some are governesses; some are bred to nursing; others, again, are in a certain degree specialists in the departments of music, or embroidery, or painting, or typewriting, or what not. They are rightly conscious that specialisation is as rarely required in a new country as it is