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HINTS IRON HISTORY:
Sy A. H. Ellett.
WOMAN IN SOCIETY.
It’s not an essay on etiquette. It’s the contem
plation of woman’s influence on the world in which
she lives and moves, and has her being, God bless
her.
Force.
Nothing moves unless, force is exerted. A locomo
tive motionless upon the track. Now force comes
into play —muscular force —coal shoveled into the
fire-box —chemical force unlocks the doors of the
molecules and the children of the sun imprisoned
for a million years rush out and joyously start back
home. Passing through the water they drive its
molecules apart, and these in turn angrily push the
piston out of their way, and the monster of steel is
rushing down the track, and a host of human souls
are hurrying home for Christmas.
Nothing grows without force. The boy shovels
a thousand units of food into his furnace at break
fast, before noon the enzymes have done their part;
850 units of heat have been liberated to do him
if'
service; 150 units of energy have been set free to
do his work within and without. When the supper
bell rings the boy is bigger than he was.
We can not create force; we can not destroy it.
“All that is at all
Lasts ever past recall.
Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure;
What entered into thee
That was, is, and shall be,
Time’s wheel runs back nor stops,
Potter and clay endure.”
. Direction.
But the value of a force depends upon the direc
tion in which it acts. Given the force, therefore,
the thing requisite is that there shall be a com
petent directive agency.
For the centuries there had been winds and waves,
and ships and sails, and masts and men, but there
had been no finger to point the way. Then came the
compass into Europe, and the navigator resolutely
pushed out upon the road of the untried sea. Not
a single recruit in the ranks of force, but a finger
to point the way, and, 10, new worlds arise upon
the vision of men.
The pathfinder is the important man. Fremont
followed the steps of the setting sun, and California,
richer than the Gardens of the Hesperides, is ours.
At Essen, in Prussia, 10,000 men are daily em
ployed building guns that will hurl a 1,000-pound
projectile a distance of fifteen miles. Train them
in the right direction and you shall see them shat
ter the citadels of oppression and batter to the
ground the prison walls of despotism.
Society is an Evolving Organism.
The material of it, and the forces at work in it,
have always been. The state of society, at any
stage of its progress, may be known by knowing the
direction of the forces at work in it.
Force undirected —chaos.
Force acting under wise direction —cosmos.
The direction is the thing.
The Mission of Woman in Society?
This is it: To dictate the direction.
There are in the United States 15,000,000 men.
If in that number there are fifteen whose life forces,
are not under the direction of women, God pity
the fifteen.
Man is executive. Woman is directive. The
direction of the forces of society, and therefore its
destiny, is in the hands of its women.
The Ideal.
The nature and form of any product depends upon
the ideal —the pattern in the soul of the producer.
The child sees a dim ideal, and builds his little
house of blocks. The savage sees a rude ideal, and
crudely traces the unlovely lines upon the rocks.
The barbarian hears the tones of an uncertain mel
ody and seeks to reproduce them on his gong.
Roebling sees a vision, and Brooklyn bridge has
annihilated East river. The graceful pillars of the
Parthenon stood complete in the soul of Phidias
before a stone was laid upon the Acropolis, The
The Golden Age for December 12, 1907.
majestic tones of the “Messiah” had marched
through the soul of Handel before the page was
marked by a single note.
The nature, the welfare, the destiny of society
depends upon the nature of its ideal, and the clear
ness with which that ideal is discerned.
Woman’s Mission in Society?
This is it: To point man’s eyes to the ideal.
This ideal may be more or less imperfectly worked
out, but the product will be after the type of the
ideal.
The only reason why the morals of any society
are no better than they are is that the women of
that community do not care for them to be.
The only reason the culture of any community is
not higher than it is, is that the women of that
community do not care for it to be.
If there were space, I would mention how the
women of the ancient Teutons went with them upon
their great invasions, and were the oracles to which
the warriors appealed for guidance. To note the
fact that the social and political revolutions in
Rome, looking to the bettering of society, owed
their origin to women. To hear Gibbon testify
that the Goths owed their first idea of Christianity
to a young girl—a prisoner in their camps. Te
hear him tell how the fiery Frank was won to
Christ by the fair Clotilda. But there is no time
for this, so I reiterate the assertion: Any society
has been, is, and will be, what the women of that
society wish it to be.
Conservation.
But after all, it matters little how lofty the ideal,
how potent the energy to attain it, if there be not
a conserving factor to make permanent the results
achieved.
It is man’s to produce; it is woman’s to con
serve.
Moses may lead the people through the sea;
Miriam must sing the glory of the triumnh. But
for Rebecca, Jacob would not have prevailed with
the angel; Bethel would not have been built; the
name of Israel would not have reached the ears
of men.
Woman’s Mission in Society?
This is it: To conserve the results of the progress
made.
Society has come to the place of its present en
campment through the stress of two great strug
gles: First, the struggle for life. Man is the ex
ponent of this cause. Destruction is its battle-cry.
Second, the struggle for the life of others. Con
servation instead of destruction is its watchword.
Self-sacrifice is the condition of enlistment. The in
carnation of its spirit is the Christian woman. The
acme of it was in the incarnation of the God-man,
born of woman, and since the ascension of the
resurrected Christ it has found its incarnation in
woman herself.
“Earth’s insufficiency
Here grows to event,
The indescribable,
Here it is done;
The woman-soul leadeth us
Upward and on.”
If society is moving in the wrong direction, it is
because its womankind wills it so. If the ideal of
society is low, it’s because its women will it so. If
the gains of the past are lost, and the voice of
truth can say, “There have been better da vs,” ’tis
because our women will it so. And when God
looks to see the hosts of societv marching up out
of the darkness into the light, He’ll bid the record
ing angel write: “The soul of woman willed it so.”
*
Oh, do not pray for easv lives’ Prav to be
stronger men! Do Tiot pray for tasks equal to vour
powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then
the doing of vour work shall be no miracle. Every
day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness
of life which has come in you by the grace of
God, —Phillips Brooks,
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* n
Pride.
With leering orbs and sneering lips
You passed nor gave a word;
Had God required worth in life,
Would you His voice have heard?
With fashion’s best, vour form adorned,
You bent no knee beside:
Were rags of righteousness a bar.
Had God heard when you cried?
—Eugene Pennington.
Astonishing Indeed.
One of the eloquent poetical writers who report
the costumes and etiquette at Washington penned
this in his, or her, account of a Presidential recep
tion: “Mrs. X. wore nothing in the way of a dress
that was remarkable.” - The slipshod English was
handsomely corrected by the pedantic but unhu
morous printer, thus :_“Mrs. X. wore nothing in the
way of a dress. That was remarkable." —The Ar
gonaut.
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