Neither do I feel called upon to show what woman's proper sphere is. In every great reform, the majority have always said to the claimant, no matter what he claimed, “You are not fit for such a privilege.” Luther asked of the Pope liberty for the masses to read the Bible. The reply was, that it would not be safe to trust the common people with the word of God. “Let them try” said the great reformer; and the history of three centuries of development and purity proclaims the result. They have tried; and look around you for the consequences. The lower classes in France claimed their civil rights,--the right to vote, and to direct representation in the government; but the rich and lettered classes, the men of cultivated intellects, cried out, “You cannot be made fit.” The answer was, “Let us try.” That France is not, as Spain, utterly crushed beneath the weight of a thousand years of mis-government, is the answer to those who doubt the ultimate success of this experiment.
Woman stands now at the same door. She says, “You tell me I have no intellect: give me a chance. You tell me I shall only embarrass politics: let me try.” The only reply is the same stale argument that said to the Jews of Europe, “You are fit only to make money; you are not fit for the ranks of the army or the halls of Parliament.” How cogent the eloquent appeal of Macaulay,--“What right have we to take this question for granted? Throw open the doors of this House of Commons, throw open the ranks of the imperial army, before you deny eloquence to the countrymen of Isaiah or valor to the descendants of the Maccabees.” It is the same now with us. Throw open the doors of Congress, throw open those court-houses, throw wide open the doors of your colleges, and give to the sisters of the Motts and the Somervilles
