His proposed statute12 consists of eighty-two clauses, and is fortified13 by a "whereas" of a hundred and thirteen weighty reasons. He exhausts the range of history to show the frightful14 results which have followed this taste of fruit of the tree of knowledge; quotes from the Encyclopédie, to prove that the woman who knows the alphabet has already lost a portion of her innocence15; cites the opinion of Molière, that any female who has unhappily learned anything in this line should affect ignorance, when possible; asserts that knowledge rarely makes men attractive, and females never; opines that women have no occasion to peruse16 Ovid's "Art of Love," since they know it all in advance; remarks that three quarters of female authors are no better than they should be; maintains that Madame Guion would have been far more useful had she been merely pretty and an ignoramus, such as Nature made her,--that Ruth and Naomi could not read, and Boaz probably would never have married into the family had they possessed18 that accomplishment,--that the Spartan19 women did not know the alphabet, nor the Amazons, nor Penelope, nor Andromache, nor Lucretia, nor Joan of Arc, nor Petrarch's Laura, nor the daughters of Charlemagne, nor the three hundred and sixty-five wives of Mohammed; but that Sappho and Madame de Maintenon could read altogether too well; while the case of Saint Brigitta, who brought forth20 twelve children and twelve books, was clearly exceptional, and afforded no safe precedent21.
It would seem that the brilliant Frenchman touched the root of the matter. Ought women to learn the alphabet? There the whole question lies. Concede this little fulcrum22, and Archimedea will move the world before she has done with it: it becomes merely a question of time. Resistance must be made here or nowhere. Obsta principiis. Woman must be a subject or an equal: there is no middle ground. What if the Chinese proverb should turn out to be, after all, the summit of wisdom, "For men, to cultivate virtue23 is knowledge; for women, to renounce24 knowledge is virtue"?
No doubt, the progress of events is slow, like the working of the laws of gravitation generally. Certainly there has been but little change in the legal position of women since China was in its prime, until within the last half century. Lawyers admit that the fundamental theory of English and Oriental law is the same on this point: Man and wife are one, and that one is the husband. It is the oldest of legal traditions. When Blackstone declares that "the very being and existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage," and American Kent echoes that "her legal existence and authority are in a manner lost;" when Petersdorff asserts that "the husband has the right of imposing25 such corporeal26 restraints as he may deem necessary," and Bacon that "the husband hath, by law, power and dominion27 over his wife, and may keep her by force within the bounds of duty, and may beat her, but not in a violent or cruel manner;" when Mr. Justice Coleridge rules that the husband, in certain cases, "has a right to confine his wife in his own dwelling-house, and restrain her from liberty for an indefinite time," and Baron28 Alderson sums it all up tersely29, "The wife is only the servant of her husband,"--these high authorities simply reaffirm the dogma of the Gentoo code, four thousand years old and more: "A man, both day and night, must keep his wife so much in subjection that she by no means be mistress of her own actions. If the wife have her own free will, notwithstanding she be of a superior caste, she will behave amiss."
Yet behind these unchanging institutions, a pressure has been for centuries becoming concentrated, which, now that it has begun to act, is threatening to overthrow30 them all. It has not yet operated very visibly in the Old World, where, even in England, the majority of women have not till lately mastered the alphabet sufficiently31 to sign their own names in the marriage register. But in this country the vast changes of the last few years are already a matter of history. No trumpet32 has been sounded, no earthquake has been felt, while State after State has ushered33 into legal existence one half of the population within its borders. Surely, here and now, might poor M. Maréchal exclaim, the bitter fruits of the original seed appear. The sad question recurs34, Whether women ought ever to have tasted of the alphabet.
It is true that Eve ruined us all, according to theology, without knowing her letters. Still there is something to be said in defence of that venerable ancestress. The Veronese lady, Isotta Nogarola, five hundred and thirty-six of whose learned epistles were preserved by De Thou, composed a dialogue on the question, Whether Adam or Eve had committed the greater sin. But Ludovico Domenichi, in his "Dialogue on the Nobleness of Women," maintains that Eve did not sin at all, because she was not even created when Adam was told not to eat the apple. It was "in Adam all died," he shrewdly says; nobody died in Eve: which looks plausible35. Be that as it may, Eve's daughters are in danger of swallowing a whole harvest of forbidden fruit, in these revolutionary days, unless something be done to cut off the supply.
It has been seriously asserted, that during the last half century more books have been written by women and about women than during all the previous uncounted ages. It may be true; although, when we think of the innumerable volumes of Mémoires by French women of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,--each justifying36 the existence of her own ten volumes by the remark, that all her contemporaries were writing as many,--we have our doubts. As to the increased multitude of general treatises38 on the female sex, however,--its education, life, health, diseases, charms, dress, deeds, sphere, rights, wrongs, work, wages, encroachments, and idiosyncrasies generally,--there can be no doubt whatever; and the poorest of these books recognizes a condition of public sentiment of which no other age ever dreamed.
Still, literary history preserves the names of some reformers before the Reformation, in this matter. There was Signora Moderata Fonte, the Venetian, who left a book to be published after her death, in 1592, "Dei Meriti delle Donne." There was her townswoman, Lucrezia Marinella, who followed, ten years after, with her essay, "La Nobilità e la Eccelenza delle Donne, con11 Difetti e Mancamenti degli Uomini,"--a comprehensive theme, truly! Then followed the all-accomplished Anna Maria Schurman, in 1645, with her "Dissertatio de Ingenii Muliebris ad Doctrinam et meliores Literas Aptitudine," with a few miscellaneous letters appended in Greek and Hebrew. At last came boldly Jacquette Guillaume, in 1665, and threw down the gauntlet in her title-page, "Les Dames39 Illustres; où par1 bonnes et fortes40 Raisons il se prouve que le Sexe Feminin surpasse en toute Sorte de Genre41 le Sexe Masculin;" and with her came Margaret Boufflet and a host of others; and finally, in England, Mary Wollstonecraft, whose famous book, formidable in its day, would seem rather conservative now; and in America, that pious42 and worthy43 dame10, Mrs. H. Mather Crocker, Cotton Mather's grandchild, who, in 1848, published the first book on the "Rights of Woman" ever written on this side the Atlantic.
Meanwhile there have never been wanting men, and strong men, to echo these appeals. From Cornelius Agrippa and his essay (1509) on the excellence44 of woman and her pre?minence over man, down to the first youthful thesis of Agassiz, "Mens Feminae Viri Animo superior," there has been a succession of voices crying in the wilderness45. In England, Anthony Gibson wrote a book, in 1599, called "A Woman's Woorth, defended against all the Men in the World, proving them to be more Perfect, Excellent, and Absolute in all Vertuous Actions than any Man of what Qualitie soever, Interlarded with Poetry." Per contra, the learned Acidalius published a book in Latin, and afterwards in French, to prove that women are not reasonable creatures. Modern theologians are at worst merely sub-acid, and do not always say so, if they think so. Meanwhile most persons have been content to leave the world to go on its old course, in this matter as in others, and have thus acquiesced46 in that stern judicial48 decree with which Timon of Athens sums up all his curses upon womankind,--"If there sit twelve women at the table, let a dozen of them be--as they are."
Ancient or modern, nothing in any of these discussions is so valuable as the fact of the discussion itself. There is no discussion where there is no wrong. Nothing so indicates wrong as this morbid49 self-inspection. The complaints are a perpetual protest, the defences a perpetual confession50. It is too late to ignore the question; and, once opened, it can be settled only on absolute and permanent principles. There is a wrong; but where? Does woman already know too much, or too little? Was she created for man's subject, or his equal? Shall she have the alphabet, or not?
Ancient mythology51, which undertook to explain everything, easily accounted for the social and political disabilities of woman. Goguet quotes the story from Saint Augustine, who got it from Varro. Cecrops, building Athens, saw starting from the earth an olive-plant and a fountain, side by side. The Delphic oracle52 said that this indicated a strife53 between Minerva and Neptune54 for the honor of giving a name to the city, and that the people must decide between them. Cecrops thereupon assembled the men, and the women also, who then had a right to vote; and the result was that Minerva carried the election by a glorious majority of one. Then Attica was overflowed55 and laid waste: of course the citizens attributed the calamity56 to Neptune, and resolved to punish the women. It was therefore determined57 that in future they should not vote, nor should any child bear the name of its mother.
Thus easily did mythology explain all troublesome inconsistencies; but it is much that it should even have recognized them as needing explanation. The real solution is, however, more simple. The obstacle to the woman's sharing the alphabet, or indeed any other privilege, has been thought by some to be the fear of impairing58 her delicacy59, or of destroying her domesticity, or of confounding the distinction between the sexes. These may have been plausible excuses. They have even been genuine, though minor60, anxieties. But the whole thing, I take it, had always one simple, intelligible61 basis,--sheer contempt for the supposed intellectual inferiority of woman. She was not to be taught, because she was not worth teaching. The learned Acidalius aforesaid was in the majority. According to Aristotle and the Peripatetics, woman was animal occasionatum, as if a sort of monster and accidental production. Mediaeval councils, charitably asserting her claims to the rank of humanity, still pronounced her unfit for instruction. In the Hindoo dramas she did not even speak the same language with her master, but used the dialect of slaves. When, in the sixteenth century, Fran?oise de Saintonges wished to establish girls' schools in France, she was hooted62 in the streets; and her father called together four doctors, learned in the law, to decide whether she was not possessed by demons63, to think of educating women,--pour s'assurer qu'instruire des femmes n'était pas un oeuvre du démon.
It was the same with political rights. The foundation of the Salic Law was not any sentimental64 anxiety to guard female delicacy and domesticity; it was, as stated by Froissart, a blunt, hearty65 contempt: "The kingdom of France being too noble to be ruled by a woman." And the same principle was reaffirmed for our own institutions, in rather softened66 language, by Theophilus Parsons, in his famous defence of the rights of Massachusetts men (the "Essex Result," in 1778): "Women, what age soever they are of, are not considered as having a sufficient acquired discretion67 [to exercise the franchise]."
In harmony with this are the various maxims68 and bon-mots of eminent69 men, in respect to women. Niebuhr thought he should not have educated a girl well,--he should have made her know too much. Lessing said, "The woman who thinks is like the man who puts on rouge70, ridiculous." Voltaire said, "Ideas are like beards: women and young men have none." And witty71 Dr. Maginn carries to its extreme the atrocity72, "We like to hear a few words of sense from a woman, as we do from a parrot, because they are so unexpected." Yet how can we wonder at these opinions, when the saints have been severer than the sages73?--since the pious Fénelon taught that true virgin74 delicacy was almost as incompatible75 with learning as with vice76; and Dr. Channing complained, in his "Essay on Exclusion77 and Denunciation," of "women forgetting the tenderness of their sex," and arguing on theology.
Now this impression of feminine inferiority may be right or wrong, but it obviously does a good deal towards explaining the facts it assumes. If contempt does not originally cause failure, it perpetuates78 it. Systematically79 discourage any individual, or class, from birth to death, and they learn, in nine cases out of ten, to acquiesce47 in their degradation80, if not to claim it as a crown of glory. If the Abbé Choisi praised the Duchesse de Fontanges for being "beautiful as an angel and silly as a goose," it was natural that all the young ladies of the court should resolve to make up in folly81 what they wanted in charms. All generations of women having been bred under the shadow of intellectual contempt, they have, of course, done much to justify37 it. They have often used only for frivolous82 purposes even the poor opportunities allowed them. They have employed the alphabet, as Molière said, chiefly in spelling the verb Amo. Their use of science has been like that of Mlle. de Launay, who computed84 the decline in her lover's affection by his abbreviation of their evening walk in the public square, preferring to cross it rather than take the circuit; "from which I inferred," she says, "that his passion had diminished in the ratio between the diagonal of a rectangular parallelogram and the sum of two adjacent sides." And their conception, even of art, has been too often on the scale of Properzia de Rossi, who carved sixty-five heads on a walnut85, the smallest of all recorded symbols of woman's sphere.
All this might, perhaps, be overcome, if the social prejudice which discourages women would only reward proportionately those who surmount86 the discouragement. The more obstacles, the more glory, if society would only pay in proportion to the labor87; but it does not. Women being denied, not merely the training which prepares for great deeds, but the praise and compensation which follow them, have been weakened in both directions. The career of eminent men ordinarily begins with college and the memories of Miltiades, and ends with fortune and fame: woman begins under discouragement, and ends beneath the same. Single, she works with half preparation and half pay; married, she puts name and wages into the keeping of her husband, shrinks into John Smith's "lady" during life, and John Smith's "relict" on her tombstone; and still the world wonders that her deeds, like her opportunities, are inferior.
Evidently, then, the advocates of woman's claims--those who hold that "the virtues88 of the man and the woman are the same," with Antisthenes, or that "the talent of the man and the woman is the same," with Socrates in Xenophon's "Banquet"--must be cautious lest they attempt to prove too much. Of course, if women know as much as the men, without schools and colleges, there is no need of admitting them to those institutions. If they work as well on half pay, it diminishes the inducement to give them the other half. The safer position is, to claim that they have done just enough to show what they might have done under circumstances less discouraging. Take, for instance, the common remark, that women have invented nothing. It is a valid89 answer, that the only implements90 habitually92 used by woman have been the needle, the spindle, and the basket; and tradition reports that she herself invented all three. In the same way it may be shown that the departments in which women have equalled men have been the departments in which they have had equal training, equal encouragement, and equal compensation; as, for instance, the theatre. Madame Lagrange, the prima donna, after years of costly93 musical instruction, wins the zenith of professional success; she receives, the newspapers affirm, sixty thousand dollars a year, travelling expenses for ten persons, country-houses, stables, and liveries, besides an uncounted revenue of bracelets95, bouquets96, and billets-doux. Of course, every young débutante fancies the same thing within her own reach, with only a brief stage-vista between. On the stage there is no deduction97 for sex, and, therefore, woman has shown in that sphere an equal genius. But every female common-school teacher in the United States finds the enjoyment98 of her four hundred dollars a year to be secretly embittered99 by the knowledge that the young college stripling in the next schoolroom is paid twice that sum for work no harder or more responsible than her own, and that, too, after the whole pathway of education has been obstructed100 for her, and smoothed for him. These may be gross and carnal considerations; but Faith asks her daily bread, and fancy must be fed. We deny woman her fair share of training, of encouragement, of remuneration, and then talk fine nonsense about her instincts and intuitions. We say sentimentally101 with the Oriental proverbialist, "Every book of knowledge is implanted by nature in the heart of woman,"--and make the compliment a substitute for the alphabet.
Nothing can be more absurd than to impose entirely102 distinct standards, in this respect, on the two sexes, or to expect that woman, any more than man, will accomplish anything great without due preparation and adequate stimulus103. Mrs. Patten, who navigated104 her husband's ship from Cape105 Horn to California, would have failed in the effort, for all her heroism106, if she had not, unlike most of her sex, been taught to use her Bowditch's "Navigator." Florence Nightingale, when she heard of the distresses108 in the Crimea, did not, as most people imagine, rise up and say, "I am a woman, ignorant but intuitive, with very little sense and information, but exceedingly sublime109 aspirations110; my strength lies in my weakness; I can do all things without knowing anything about them." Not at all: during ten years she had been in hard training for precisely111 such services; had visited all the hospitals in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, Lyons, Rome, Brussels, and Berlin; had studied under the Sisters of Charity, and been twice a nurse in the Protestant Institution at Kaiserswerth. Therefore she did not merely carry to the Crimea a woman's heart, as her stock in trade, but she knew the alphabet of her profession better than the men around her. Of course, genius and enthusiasm are, for both sexes, elements unforeseen and incalculable; but, as a general rule, great achievements imply great preparations and favorable conditions. To disregard this truth is unreasonable112 in the abstract, and cruel in its consequences. If an extraordinary male gymnast can clear a height of ten feet with the aid of a springboard, it would be considered slightly absurd to ask a woman to leap eleven feet without one; yet this is precisely what society and the critics have always done. Training and wages and social approbation113 are very elastic114 springboards; and the whole course of history has seen these offered bounteously115 to one sex, and as sedulously116 withheld117 from the other. Let woman consent to be a doll, and there was no finery so gorgeous, no baby-house so costly, but she might aspire118 to share its lavish119 delights; let her ask simply for an equal chance to learn, to labor, and to live, and it was as if that same doll should open its lips, and propound120 Euclid's forty-seventh proposition. While we have all deplored121 the helpless position of indigent122 women, and lamented123 that they had no alternative beyond the needle, the wash-tub, the schoolroom, and the street, we have usually resisted their admission into every new occupation, denied them training, and cut their compensation down. Like Charles Lamb, who atoned124 for coming late to the office in the morning by going away early in the afternoon, we have first, half educated women, and then, to restore the balance, only half paid them. What innumerable obstacles have been placed in their way as female physicians; what a complication of difficulties has been encountered by them, even as printers, engravers, and designers! In London, Mr. Bennett was once mobbed for lecturing to women on watchmaking. In this country, we have known grave professors refuse to address lyceums which thought fit to employ an occasional female lecturer. Mr. Comer stated that it was "in the face of ridicule126 and sneers127" that he began to educate American women as bookkeepers many years ago; and it was a little contemptible128 in Miss Muloch to revive the same satire129 in "A Woman's Thoughts on Women," when she must have known that in half the retail130 shops in Paris her own sex rules the ledger131, and Mammon knows no Salic law.
We find, on investigation132, what these considerations would lead us to expect, that eminent women have commonly been exceptional in training and position, as well as in their genius. They have excelled the average of their own sex because they have shared the ordinary advantages of the other sex. Take any department of learning or skill; take, for instance, the knowledge of languages, the universal alphabet, philology133. On the great stairway at Padua stands the statue of Elena Cornaro, professor of six languages in that once renowned135 university. But Elena Cornaro was educated like a boy, by her father. On the great door of the University of Bologna is inscribed136 the epitaph of Clotilda Tambroni, the honored correspondent of Porson, and the first Greek scholar of southern Europe in her day. But Clotilda Tambroni was educated like a boy, by Emanuele Aponte. How fine are those prefatory words, "by a Right Reverend Prelate," to that pioneer book in Anglo-Saxon lore107, Elizabeth Elstob's grammar: "Our earthly possessions are indeed our patrimony137, as derived138 to us by the industry of our fathers; but the language in which we speak is our mother tongue, and who so proper to play the critic in this as the females?" Yet this particular female obtained the rudiments139 of her rare education from her mother, before she was eight years old, in spite of much opposition140 from her right reverend guardians141. Adelung declares that all modern philology is founded on the translation of a Russian vocabulary into two hundred different dialects by Catherine II. But Catherine shared, in childhood, the instructors142 of her brother, Prince Frederick, and was subject to some reproach for learning, though a girl, so much more rapidly than he did. Christina of Sweden ironically reproved Madame Dacier for her translation of Callimachus: "Such a pretty girl as you are, are you not ashamed to be so learned?" But Madame Dacier acquired Greek by contriving143 to do her embroidery144 in the room where her father was teaching her stupid brother; and her queenly critic had herself learned to read Thucydides, harder Greek than Callimachus, before she was fourteen. And so down to our own day, who knows how many mute, inglorious Minervas may have perished unenlightened, while Margaret Fuller Ossoli and Elizabeth Barrett Browning were being educated "like boys."
This expression simply means that they had the most solid training which the times afforded. Most persons would instantly take alarm at the very words; that is, they have so little faith in the distinctions which Nature has established, that they think, if you teach the alphabet, or anything else, indiscriminately to both sexes, you annul145 all difference between them. The common reasoning is thus: "Boys and girls are acknowledged to be very unlike. Now, boys study Greek and algebra146, medicine and bookkeeping. Therefore girls should not." As if one should say: "Boys and girls are very unlike. Now, boys eat beef and potatoes. Therefore, obviously, girls should not."
The analogy between physical and spiritual food is precisely in point. The simple truth is, that, amid the vast range of human powers and properties, the fact of sex is but one item. Vital and momentous147 in itself, it does not constitute the whole organism, but only a part. The distinction of male and female is special, aimed at a certain end; and, apart from that end, it is, throughout all the kingdoms of Nature, of minor importance. With but trifling148 exceptions, from infusoria up to man, the female animal moves, breathes, looks, listens, runs, flies, swims, pursues its food, eats it, digests it, in precisely the same manner as the male: all instincts, all characteristics, are the same, except as to the one solitary149 fact of parentage. Mr. Ten Broeck's race-horses, Pryor and Prioress, were foaled alike, fed alike, trained alike, and finally ran side by side, competing for the same prize. The eagle is not checked in soaring by any consciousness of sex, nor asks the sex of the timid hare, its quarry150. Nature, for high purposes, creates and guards the sexual distinction, but keeps it subordinate to those still more important.
Now all this bears directly upon the alphabet. What sort of philosophy is that which says, "John is a fool; Jane is a genius: nevertheless, John, being a man, shall learn, lead, make laws, make money; Jane, being a woman, shall be ignorant, dependent, disfranchised, underpaid"? Of course, the time is past when one would state this so frankly151, though Comte comes quite near it, to say nothing of the Mormons; but this formula really lies at the bottom of the reasoning one hears every day. The answer is, Soul before sex. Give an equal chance, and let genius and industry do the rest. La carrière ouverte aux talens! Every man for himself, every woman for herself, and the alphabet for us all.
Thus far, my whole course of argument has been defensive152 and explanatory. I have shown that woman's inferiority in special achievements, so far as it exists, is a fact of small importance, because it is merely a corollary from her historic position of degradation. She has not excelled, because she has had no fair chance to excel. Man, placing his foot upon her shoulder, has taunted153 her with not rising. But the ulterior question remains154 behind. How came she into this attitude originally? Explain the explanation, the logician156 fairly demands. Granted that woman is weak because she has been systematically degraded: but why was she degraded? This is a far deeper question,--one to be met only by a profounder philosophy and a positive solution. We are coming on ground almost wholly untrod, and must do the best we can.
I venture to assert, then, that woman's social inferiority has been, to a great extent, in the past a legitimate157 thing. To all appearance, history would have been impossible without it, just as it would have been impossible without an epoch158 of war and slavery. It is simply a matter of social progress,--a part of the succession of civilizations. The past has been inevitably159 a period of ignorance, of engrossing160 physical necessities, and of brute161 force,--not of freedom, of philanthropy, and of culture. During that lower epoch, woman was necessarily an inferior, degraded by abject162 labor, even in time of peace,--degraded uniformly by war, chivalry163 to the contrary notwithstanding. Behind all the courtesies of Amadis and the Cid lay the stern fact,--woman a child or a toy. The flattering troubadours chanted her into a poet's paradise; but alas164! that kingdom of heaven suffered violence, and the violent took it by force. The truth simply was, that her time had not come. Physical strength must rule for a time, and she was the weaker. She was very properly refused a feudal165 grant, by reason, say "Les Coustumes de Normandie," of her unfitness for war or policy: C'est l'homme ki se bast et ki conseille. Other authorities put it still more plainly: "A woman cannot serve the emperor or feudal lord in war, on account of the decorum of her sex; nor assist him with advice, because of her limited intellect; nor keep his counsel, owing to the infirmity of her disposition166." All which was, no doubt, in the majority of cases, true; and the degradation of woman was simply a part of a system which has, indeed, had its day, but has bequeathed its associations.
From this reign167 of force, woman never freed herself by force. She could not fight, or would not. Bohemian annals, to be sure, record the legend of a literal war between the sexes, in which the women's army was led by Libussa and Wlasla, and which finally ended with the capture, by the army of men, of Castle Dziewin, Maiden's Tower, whose ruins are still visible near Prague. The armor of Libussa is still shown at Vienna; and the guide calls attention to the long-peaked toes of steel, with which, he avers125, the tender princess was wont168 to pierce the hearts of her opponents, while careering through the battle. And there are abundant instances in which women have fought side by side with men, and on equal terms. The ancient British women mingled169 in the wars of their husbands, and their princesses were trained to the use of arms in the Maiden's Castle at Edinburgh, in the Isle170 of Skye. The Moorish171 wives and maidens172 fought in defence of their European peninsula; and the Portuguese173 women fought on the same soil, against the armies of Philip II. The king of Siam has, at present, a body-guard of four hundred women: they are armed with lance and rifle, are admirably disciplined, and their commander (appointed after saving the king's life at a tiger-hunt) ranks as one of the royal family, and has ten elephants at her service. When the all-conquering Dahomian army marched upon Abbeokuta, in 1851, they numbered ten thousand men and six thousand women. The women were, as usual, placed foremost in the assault, as being most reliable; and of the eighteen hundred bodies left dead before the walls, the vast majority were of women. The Hospital of the Invalides, in Paris, has sheltered, for half a century, a fine specimen174 of a female soldier, "Lieutenant175 Madame Bulan," who lived to be more than eighty years old, had been decorated by Napoleon's own hand with the cross of the Legion of Honor, and was credited on the hospital books with "seven years' service, seven campaigns, three wounds, several times distinguished176, especially in Corsica, in defending a fort against the English." But these cases, though interesting to the historian, are still exceptional; and the instinctive177 repugnance178 they inspire is a condemnation179, not of women, but of war.
The reason, then, for the long subjection of woman has been simply that humanity was passing through its first epoch, and her full career was to be reserved for the second. As the different races of man have appeared successively upon the stage of history, so there has been an order of succession of the sexes. Woman's appointed era, like that of the Teutonic races, was delayed, but not omitted. It is not merely true that the empire of the past has belonged to man, but that it has properly belonged to him; for it was an empire of the muscles, enlisting180, at best, but the lower powers of the understanding. There can be no question that the present epoch is initiating181 an empire of the higher reason, of arts, affections, aspirations; and for that epoch the genius of woman has been reserved. The spirit of the age has always kept pace with the facts, and outstripped182 the statutes183. Till the fulness of time came, woman was necessarily kept a slave to the spinning-wheel and the needle; now higher work is ready; peace has brought invention to her aid, and the mechanical means for her emancipation184 are ready also. No use in releasing her till man, with his strong arm, had worked out his preliminary share in civilization. "Earth waits for her queen" was a favorite motto of Margaret Fuller Ossoli; but it would be more correct to say that the queen has waited for her earth, till it could be smoothed and prepared for her occupancy. Now Cinderella may begin to think of putting on her royal robes.
Everybody sees that the times are altering the whole material position of woman; but most people do not appear to see the inevitable185 social and moral changes which are also involved. As has been already said, the woman of ancient history was a slave to physical necessities, both in war and peace. In war she could do too little; in peace she did too much, under the material compulsions which controlled the world. How could the Jews, for instance, elevate woman? They could not spare her from the wool and the flax, and the candle that goeth not out by night. In Rome, when the bride first stepped across her threshold, they did not ask her, Do you know the alphabet? they asked simply, Can you spin? There was no higher epitaph than Queen Amalasontha's,--Domum servavit, lanam fecit. In Boeotia, brides were conducted home in vehicles whose wheels were burned at the door, in token that they were never to leave the house again. Pythagoras instituted at Crotona an annual festival for the distaff; Confucius, in China, did the same for the spindle; and these celebrated186 not the freedom, but the serfdom, of woman.
And even into modern days this same tyrannical necessity has lingered. "Go spin, you jades187! go spin!" was the only answer vouchsafed188 by the Earl of Pembroke to the twice-banished nuns189 of Wilton. Even now, travellers agree that throughout civilized190 Europe, with the partial exception of England and France, the profound absorption of the mass of women in household labors191 renders their general elevation192 impossible. But with us Americans, and in this age, when all these vast labors are being more and more transferred to arms of brass193 and iron; when Rochester grinds the flour and Lowell weaves the cloth, and the fire on the hearth194 has gone into black retirement195 and mourning; when the wiser a virgin is, the less she has to do with oil in her lamp; when the needle has made its last dying speech and confession in the "Song of the Shirt," and the sewing-machine has changed those doleful marches to delightful196 measures,--how is it possible for the blindest to help seeing that a new era is begun, and that the time has come for woman to learn the alphabet?
Nobody asks for any abolition197 of domestic labor for women, any more than of outdoor labor for men. Of course, most women will still continue to be mainly occupied with the indoor care of their families, and most men with their external support. All that is desirable for either sex is such an economy of labor, in this respect, as shall leave some spare time to be appropriated in other directions. The argument against each new emancipation of woman is precisely that always made against the liberation of serfs and the enfranchisement198 of plebeians,--that the new position will take them from their legitimate business. "How can he [or she] get wisdom that holdeth the plough [or the broom],--whose talk is of bullocks [or of babies]?" Yet the American farmer has already emancipated200 himself from these fancied incompatibilities; and so will the farmer's wife. In a nation where there is no leisure class and no peasantry, this whole theory of exclusion is an absurdity201. We all have a little leisure, and we must all make the most of it. If we will confine large interests and duties to those who have nothing else to do, we must go back to monarchy202 at once. If otherwise, then the alphabet, and its consequences, must be open to woman as to man. Jean Paul says nobly, in his "Levana," that, "before and after being a mother, a woman is a human being, and neither maternal203 nor conjugal204 relation can supersede205 the human responsibility, but must become its means and instrument." And it is good to read the manly206 speech, on this subject, of John Quincy Adams, quoted at length in Quincy's life of him, in which, after fully207 defending the political petitions of the women of Plymouth, he declares that "the correct principle is that women are not only justified208, but exhibit the most exalted209 virtue, when they do depart from the domestic circle, and enter on the concerns of their country, of humanity, and of their God."
There are duties devolving on every human being,--duties not small nor few, but vast and varied,--which spring from home and private life, and all their sweet relations. The support or care of the humblest household is a function worthy of men, women, and angels, so far as it goes. From these duties none must shrink, neither man nor woman; the loftiest genius cannot ignore them; the sublimest210 charity must begin with them. They are their own exceeding great reward; their self-sacrifice is infinite joy; and the selfishness which discards them is repaid by loneliness and a desolate211 old age. Yet these, though the most tender and intimate portion of human life, do not form its whole. It is given to noble souls to crave212 other interests also, added spheres, not necessarily alien from these; larger knowledge, larger action also; duties, responsibilities, anxieties, dangers, all the aliment that history has given to its heroes. Not home less, but humanity more. When the high-born English lady in the Crimean hospital, ordered to a post of almost certain death, only raised her hands to heaven, and said, "Thank God!" she did not renounce her true position as woman: she claimed it. When the queen of James I. of Scotland, already immortalized by him in stately verse, won a higher immortality213 by welcoming to her fair bosom214 the dagger215 aimed at his; when the Countess of Buchan hung confined in her iron cage, outside Berwick Castle, in penalty for crowning Robert the Bruce; when the stainless216 soul of Joan of Arc met God, like Moses, in a burning flame,--these things were as they should be. Man must not monopolize217 these privileges of peril218, the birthright of great souls. Serenades and compliments must not replace the nobler hospitality which shares with woman the opportunity of martyrdom. Great administrative219 duties also, cares of state, for which one should be born gray-headed, how nobly do these sit upon a woman's brow! Each year adds to the storied renown134 of Elizabeth of England, greatest sovereign of the greatest of historic nations. Christina of Sweden, alone among the crowned heads of Europe (so says Voltaire), sustained the dignity of the throne against Richelieu and Mazarin. And these queens most assuredly did not sacrifice their womanhood in the process; for her Britannic Majesty's wardrobe included four thousand gowns; and Mile, de Montpensier declares that when Christina had put on a wig220 of the latest fashion, "she really looked extremely pretty."
Les races se féminisent, said Buffon,--"The world is growing more feminine." It is a compliment, whether the naturalist221 intended it or not. Time has brought peace; peace, invention; and the poorest woman of to-day is born to an inheritance of which her ancestors never dreamed. Previous attempts to confer on women social and political equality,--as when Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, made them magistrates222; or when the Hungarian revolutionists made them voters; or when our own New Jersey223 tried the same experiment in a guarded fashion in early times, and then revoked224 the privilege, because (as in the ancient fable) the women voted the wrong way;--these things were premature225, and valuable only as recognitions of a principle. But in view of the rapid changes now going on, he is a rash man who asserts the "Woman Question" to be anything but a mere17 question of time. The fulcrum has been already given in the alphabet, and we must simply watch, and see whether the earth does not move.
There is the plain fact: woman must be either a subject or an equal; there is no middle ground. Every concession226 to a supposed principle only involves the necessity of the next concession for which that principle calls. Once yield the alphabet, and we abandon the whole long theory of subjection and coverture: tradition is set aside, and we have nothing but reason to fall back upon. Reasoning abstractly, it must be admitted that the argument has been, thus far, entirely on the women's side, inasmuch as no man has yet seriously tried to meet them with argument. It is an alarming feature of this discussion, that it has reversed, very generally, the traditional positions of the sexes: the women have had all the logic155; and the most intelligent men, when they have attempted the other side, have limited themselves to satire and gossip. What rational woman can be really convinced by the nonsense which is talked in ordinary society around her,--as, that it is right to admit girls to common schools, and equally right to exclude them from colleges; that it is proper for a woman to sing in public, but indelicate for her to speak in public; that a post-office box is an unexceptionable place to drop a bit of paper into, but a ballot-box terribly dangerous? No cause in the world can keep above water, sustained by such contradictions as these, too feeble and slight to be dignified227 by the name of fallacies. Some persons profess94 to think it impossible to reason with a woman, and such critics certainly show no disposition to try the experiment.
But we must remember that all our American institutions are based on consistency228, or on nothing: all claim to be founded on the principles of natural right; and when they quit those, they are lost. In all European monarchies229 it is the theory that the mass of the people are children to be governed, not mature beings to govern themselves; this is clearly stated and consistently applied230. In the United States we have formally abandoned this theory for one half of the human race, while for the other half it flourishes with little change. The moment the claims of woman are broached231, the democrat232 becomes a monarchist. What Americans commonly criticise233 in English statesmen, namely, that they habitually evade234 all arguments based on natural right, and defend every legal wrong on the ground that it works well in practice, is the precise defect in our habitual91 view of woman. The perplexity must be resolved somehow. Most men admit that a strict adherence235 to our own principles would place both sexes in precisely equal positions before law and constitution, as well as in school and society. But each has his special quibble to apply, showing that in this case we must abandon all the general maxims to which we have pledged ourselves, and hold only by precedent. Nay83, he construes236 even precedent with the most ingenious rigor237; since the exclusion of women from all direct contact with affairs can be made far more perfect in a republic than is possible in a monarchy, where even sex is merged238 in rank, and the female patrician239 may have far more power than the male plebeian199. But, as matters now stand among us, there is no aristocracy but of sex: all men are born patrician, all women are legally plebeian; all men are equal in having political power, and all women in having none. This is a paradox240 so evident, and such an anomaly in human progress, that it cannot last forever, without new discoveries in logic, or else a deliberate return to M. Maréchal's theory concerning the alphabet.
Meanwhile, as the newspapers say, we anxiously await further developments. According to present appearances, the final adjustment lies mainly in the hands of women themselves. Men can hardly be expected to concede either rights or privileges more rapidly than they are claimed, or to be truer to women than women are to each other. In fact, the worst effect of a condition of inferiority is the weakness it leaves behind; even when we say, "Hands off!" the sufferer does not rise. In such a case, there is but one counsel worth giving. More depends on determination than even on ability. Will, not talent, governs the world. Who believed that a poetess could ever be more than an Annot Lyle of the harp241, to soothe242 with sweet melodies the leisure of her lord, until in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's hands the thing became a trumpet? Where are gone the sneers with which army surgeons and parliamentary orators243 opposed Mr. Sidney Herbert's first proposition to send Florence Nightingale to the Crimea? In how many towns was the current of popular prejudice against female orators reversed by one winning speech from Lucy Stone! Where no logic can prevail, success silences. First give woman, if you dare, the alphabet, then summon her to her career: and though men, ignorant and prejudiced, may oppose its beginnings, they will at last fling around her conquering footsteps more lavish praises than ever greeted the opera's idol,--more perfumed flowers than ever wooed, with intoxicating244 fragrance245, the fairest butterfly of the ball-room.
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par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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remodelling
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| v.改变…的结构[形状]( remodel的现在分词 ) | |
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ironical
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| adj.讽刺的，冷嘲的 | |
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satirist
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| n.讽刺诗作者，讽刺家，爱挖苦别人的人 | |
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sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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pungency
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| n.（气味等的）刺激性；辣；（言语等的）辛辣；尖刻 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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dame
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| n.女士 | |
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con
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| n.反对的观点，反对者，反对票，肺病；vt.精读，学习，默记；adv.反对地，从反面；adj.欺诈的 | |
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statute
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| n.成文法，法令，法规；章程，规则，条例 | |
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fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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peruse
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| v.细读，精读 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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spartan
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| adj.简朴的，刻苦的；n.斯巴达；斯巴达式的人 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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precedent
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| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
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fulcrum
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| n.杠杆支点 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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renounce
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| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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corporeal
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| adj.肉体的，身体的；物质的 | |
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dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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tersely
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| adv. 简捷地, 简要地 | |
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overthrow
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| v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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trumpet
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| n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘 | |
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ushered
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| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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recurs
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| 再发生，复发( recur的第三人称单数 ) | |
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plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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justifying
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| 证明…有理( justify的现在分词 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护） | |
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justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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treatises
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| n.专题著作，专题论文，专著( treatise的名词复数 ) | |
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dames
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| n.（在英国）夫人（一种封号），夫人（爵士妻子的称号）( dame的名词复数 )；女人 | |
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fortes
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| n.特长，专长，强项( forte的名词复数 )；强音( fortis的名词复数 ) | |
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genre
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| n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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acquiesced
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| v.默认，默许( acquiesce的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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acquiesce
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| vi.默许，顺从，同意 | |
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judicial
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| adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的 | |
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morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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mythology
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| n.神话，神话学，神话集 | |
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oracle
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| n.神谕，神谕处，预言 | |
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strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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Neptune
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| n.海王星 | |
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overflowed
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| 溢出的 | |
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calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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impairing
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| v.损害，削弱( impair的现在分词 ) | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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hooted
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| （使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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demons
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| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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maxims
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| n.格言，座右铭( maxim的名词复数 ) | |
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eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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rouge
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| n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红 | |
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witty
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| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
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atrocity
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| n.残暴，暴行 | |
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sages
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| n.圣人( sage的名词复数 )；智者；哲人；鼠尾草（可用作调料） | |
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virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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incompatible
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| adj.不相容的，不协调的，不相配的 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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exclusion
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| n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行 | |
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perpetuates
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| n.使永存，使人记住不忘( perpetuate的名词复数 )；使永久化，使持久化，使持续 | |
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systematically
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| adv.有系统地 | |
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degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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83
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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computed
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| adj.[医]计算的，使用计算机的v.计算，估算( compute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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85
walnut
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| n.胡桃，胡桃木，胡桃色，茶色 | |
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86
surmount
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| vt.克服；置于…顶上 | |
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87
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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88
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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89
valid
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| adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的 | |
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90
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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91
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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92
habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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93
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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94
profess
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| v.声称，冒称，以...为业，正式接受入教，表明信仰 | |
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95
bracelets
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| n.手镯，臂镯( bracelet的名词复数 ) | |
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96
bouquets
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| n.花束( bouquet的名词复数 )；（酒的）芳香 | |
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97
deduction
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| n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎 | |
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98
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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99
embittered
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| v.使怨恨，激怒( embitter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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100
obstructed
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| 阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
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101
sentimentally
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| adv.富情感地 | |
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102
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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103
stimulus
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| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
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104
navigated
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| v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的过去式和过去分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃 | |
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105
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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106
heroism
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| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
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107
lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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108
distresses
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| n.悲痛( distress的名词复数 )；痛苦；贫困；危险 | |
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109
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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110
aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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111
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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112
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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113
approbation
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| n.称赞；认可 | |
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114
elastic
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| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
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115
bounteously
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| adv.慷慨地，丰富地 | |
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116
sedulously
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| ad.孜孜不倦地 | |
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117
withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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118
aspire
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| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
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119
lavish
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| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
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120
propound
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| v.提出 | |
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121
deplored
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| v.悲叹，痛惜，强烈反对( deplore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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122
indigent
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| adj.贫穷的，贫困的 | |
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123
lamented
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| adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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124
atoned
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| v.补偿，赎（罪）( atone的过去式和过去分词 )；补偿，弥补，赎回 | |
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125
avers
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| v.断言( aver的第三人称单数 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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126
ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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127
sneers
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| 讥笑的表情（言语）( sneer的名词复数 ) | |
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128
contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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129
satire
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| n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品 | |
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130
retail
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| v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格 | |
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131
ledger
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| n.总帐，分类帐；帐簿 | |
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132
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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133
philology
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| n.语言学；语文学 | |
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134
renown
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| n.声誉，名望 | |
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135
renowned
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| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
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136
inscribed
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| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
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137
patrimony
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| n.世袭财产，继承物 | |
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138
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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139
rudiments
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| n.基础知识，入门 | |
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140
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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141
guardians
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| 监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者 | |
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142
instructors
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| 指导者，教师( instructor的名词复数 ) | |
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143
contriving
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| （不顾困难地）促成某事( contrive的现在分词 )； 巧妙地策划，精巧地制造（如机器）； 设法做到 | |
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144
embroidery
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| n.绣花，刺绣；绣制品 | |
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145
annul
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| v.宣告…无效，取消，废止 | |
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146
algebra
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| n.代数学 | |
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147
momentous
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|
| adj.重要的，重大的 | |
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148
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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149
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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150
quarry
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|
| n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找 | |
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151
frankly
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|
| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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152
defensive
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|
| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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153
taunted
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| 嘲讽( taunt的过去式和过去分词 )； 嘲弄； 辱骂； 奚落 | |
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154
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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155
logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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156
logician
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| n.逻辑学家 | |
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157
legitimate
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|
| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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158
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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159
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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160
engrossing
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| adj.使人全神贯注的，引人入胜的v.使全神贯注( engross的现在分词 ) | |
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161
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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162
abject
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| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
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163
chivalry
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| n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤 | |
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164
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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165
feudal
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| adj.封建的，封地的，领地的 | |
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166
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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167
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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168
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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169
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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170
isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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171
moorish
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| adj.沼地的，荒野的，生[住]在沼地的 | |
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172
maidens
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| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
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173
Portuguese
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| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
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174
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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175
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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176
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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177
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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178
repugnance
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| n.嫌恶 | |
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179
condemnation
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| n.谴责; 定罪 | |
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180
enlisting
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| v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的现在分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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181
initiating
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| v.开始( initiate的现在分词 )；传授；发起；接纳新成员 | |
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182
outstripped
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| v.做得比…更好，（在赛跑等中）超过( outstrip的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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183
statutes
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| 成文法( statute的名词复数 )； 法令； 法规； 章程 | |
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184
emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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185
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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186
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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187
jades
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| n.玉，翡翠（jade的复数形式）v.（使）疲（jade的第三人称单数形式） | |
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188
vouchsafed
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| v.给予，赐予( vouchsafe的过去式和过去分词 )；允诺 | |
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189
nuns
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| n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 ) | |
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190
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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191
labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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192
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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193
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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194
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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195
retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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196
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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197
abolition
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| n.废除，取消 | |
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198
enfranchisement
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| 选举权 | |
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199
plebeian
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| adj.粗俗的；平民的；n.平民；庶民 | |
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200
emancipated
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|
| adj.被解放的，不受约束的v.解放某人（尤指摆脱政治、法律或社会的束缚）( emancipate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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201
absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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202
monarchy
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| n.君主，最高统治者；君主政体，君主国 | |
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203
maternal
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| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
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204
conjugal
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| adj.婚姻的，婚姻性的 | |
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205
supersede
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| v.替代；充任 | |
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206
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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207
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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208
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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209
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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210
sublimest
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| 伟大的( sublime的最高级 )； 令人赞叹的； 极端的； 不顾后果的 | |
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211
desolate
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|
| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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212
crave
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| vt.渴望得到，迫切需要，恳求，请求 | |
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213
immortality
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| n.不死，不朽 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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dagger
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| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
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stainless
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| adj.无瑕疵的，不锈的 | |
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217
monopolize
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| v.垄断，独占，专营 | |
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peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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administrative
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| adj.行政的，管理的 | |
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wig
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| n.假发 | |
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221
naturalist
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| n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者) | |
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222
magistrates
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| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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jersey
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| n.运动衫 | |
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224
revoked
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| adj.[法]取消的v.撤销，取消，废除( revoke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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225
premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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226
concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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227
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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228
consistency
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| n.一贯性，前后一致，稳定性；(液体的)浓度 | |
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monarchies
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| n. 君主政体, 君主国, 君主政治 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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231
broached
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| v.谈起( broach的过去式和过去分词 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体 | |
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232
democrat
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| n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员 | |
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criticise
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| v.批评，评论；非难 | |
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234
evade
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| vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避 | |
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adherence
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| n.信奉，依附，坚持，固着 | |
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236
construes
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| v.解释（陈述、行为等）( construe的第三人称单数 )；翻译，作句法分析 | |
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rigor
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| n.严酷，严格，严厉 | |
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merged
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| （使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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patrician
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| adj.贵族的，显贵的；n.贵族；有教养的人；罗马帝国的地方官 | |
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paradox
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| n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物) | |
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241
harp
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| n.竖琴；天琴座 | |
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242
soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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243
orators
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| n.演说者，演讲家( orator的名词复数 ) | |
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244
intoxicating
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| a. 醉人的,使人兴奋的 | |
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fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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