To the Editor of Putnam's Monthly.

IN looking over an article on “Woman

and the Woman's Movement,” in one of the early numbers of your excellent journal, my attention was arrested by the following passage:—

"Altogether it appears to us that these amiable and precipitate ladies have exhibited a complete misapprehension of the genius of their own sex, which by the way is a fact not to be wondered at, for each sex finds in the other its own best appreciation. Woman no doubt has a much wiser sense of what is manly than man himself has, because she surveys him from without, and gathers up the scattered rays of his character in one full and symmetric impression. She has no private biases to deflect her vision. So it is with man in respect to woman. His spontaneous impression of woman is much truer than her own."

If your correspondent is right—and there can be no doubt of it—the stronger sex ought to be permitted to take an occasional glance at themselves in the mirror of a woman's judgment. It is a pity that this "full and symmetric impression" should be for ever veiled from sight, and this "wiser sense of what is manly," concealed from the knowledge of those who most need its suggestions.

Man has shown no reluctance to become the instructor and counsellor of woman. On the contrary, having made the most profound and comprehensive researches into the subject of her nature, capacities, and consequent duties to himself, he has not been backward in proclaiming the results of his investigations; Lor has he failed to bestow upon our docile sex, the inestimable favor of a continual reiteration of the same. In his ordinary, common sense moods, he has closely observed woman in every possibie position and relation that the parlor, nursery and kitchen admit of; in his poetic moments, he has contemplated her at a di-tance, with a half-shut eye, and fancied her to be a divinity surrounded by a halo of virtues and graces; anon, with a bold stride he has "explored the deepest recesses" of her being, thrusting his cane into every corner of her mental and moral constitution; again, with "scientific purpose," he has subjected

her to anatomical inspection, till at length her "Whole Life and Environment have been laid open and elucidated. Scarcely a fragment or fibre of soul, body and possessions, but has been probed, dissected, distilled, dessicated, and scientifically decomposed." The very ethereal spirit of her has recently been detected and detained by "victorious analysis of one of our first clergymen," and found to be identical with the "essence of the Beatitudes." The same chemico-clerical genius has, by a kind of transcendental inspiration, come to a pretty near guess, as to the reason "why God ever made a woman!"

So watchful are these self-appointed guardians of the female portion of mankind, that they let slip no opportunity of showing us to ourselves, even when we least expect it. In sermon and essay, and newspaper, in the grave theological review and the lively magazine,in the heavy wine and the humble tract, they treat us to a homily, or at least drop a sufficient hint, touching our "sphere and duties." If a literary or scientific gentleman presents himself before a mixed audience as a lecturer, whatever be the subject, he is almost sure, in the course of his address, to tell the women what he thinks of them. If the speaker is a grave and dignified man, it requires often an admirable degree of ingenuity to fasten properly such an episodical matter to the main subject. With the humorist it is easier. He always takes care to fill the pockets of his memory with a number of light squibs to fling among the audience, and keep their attention awake, after the same fashion as "Young Amer ica," en Fourth of July days, scatters little fireworks on the side-walks, which. pop and fiz unexpectedly under the feet of passers. At charitable and philanthropic meetings, it is customary to address a paragraph of the public exhortation to women, thus intimating that the rest of the discourse to which they had been listening had no application to them.

Let a woman, "with rash hand in evil hour," put forth a book. Lo! the golden opportunity is seized upon for a new batch of articles called reviews, but

which turn out to be essays on womanhood. The analysis is repeated, the depths are again sounded, the essence distilled, the subtile spirit caught, the old sermon of domestic duties furbished up with a new text, and preached over again to the patient and much-enduring sisterhood. A good sized volume on the natural characteristics of woman might be compiled from the press notices of Uncle Tom's Cabin alone. The question of her capacity to write a proper novel at all, the kind she may with safety attempt, her deficiency of humor, her lack of ability to construct a plot, these, and similar matters, are definitively settled. Now, though extremely grateful for the smallest attentions from the lords of creation, we should like to see, as a curiosity merely, some production of a "female pen" reviewed as a work of art; the preliminary process of fusing the whole sisterhood in the crucible being omitted. But we have long since despaired of the appearance of such a remarkable literary phenomenon.

Verily the debt of obligation which the weaker sex owes the stronger is very great. All women have now found out what they are, of what they are capable, in what their duty and highest hanniness consist, and, best of all, the way to please the men! That mysterious thing, of which we have heard so often, "the secret of our power," has been fully and clearly explained. We have been told by our advisers in what ways we may become "charming," and in what ways we are in danger of losing our "charms." Sapient editors have informed us, also, what things they would not like to have their wives do; so that we need no longer limit our ambition to attempts at pleasing our several husbands, fathers, and brothers, but aspire after the commendations of all men. What glory is ours! We are the last and most perfect work of God; sprung from the rib of an Adam-the rib nearest his heart, we are told-and at length, after six thousand years of tuition, we are flattered, in some quarters, as having "risen" to an equality with man!

We are impelled to make a small instalment in return for the numerous favors we have received. We offer it in the current coin, which though somewhat worn, bears the familiar stamp.

Ever since, in our childhood we laughed at the philosopher who would have produced gourds on oak trees and acorns on vines, and at the cat who at

tempted to play fine lady, we have been convinced of the propriety and wisdom of conforming to Nature, and moving in the sphere indicated by creative intelligence. Mature years have strengthened the conviction. All things, all beings have a sphere of action to which they are suited; only in their own place are they beautiful and useful; out of it, they are unsightly and absurd. "Things are not huddled and lumped, but sundered and individual. A bell and a plough have each their use, and neither can do the office of the other. Water is good to drink, coal to burn, wool to wear, but wool cannot be drunk, nor water spun, nor coal eaten. The wise man shows his wisdom in separation, in gradation; and his scale of creatures and of merits is as wide as Nature." "Nature pardons no mistakes; her yea is yea, her nay, nay." Now, what is the affirmation of Nature, concerning the sphere of action, suited to the male portion of the human race? The answer to this question will be found by a recurrence to the facts of man's mental and physical constitution.

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We do not propose to enter upon an inquiry as to the equality of man woman. We waive the question, or yield the point, and allow that he is not inferior to us. But he is different. "His muscular system is firmer and more powerful; his chest wider, his lungs more capacious and stronger. The female form is more slender; the bones are smaller; the heart and arterial system weaker; the venous and lymphatic systems predominate, and thus the contour is more rounded, forming the waving line; the whole proportion of the body is smaller and more delicate. Hence the form of man conveys the idea of strength; the form of woman that of beauty."

Man is active; woman, passive; man aims at distant objects; he generalizes, forms extensive plans, and occupies himself with abstract subjects. Woman interests herself in the concrete, the particular, the practical. Man is quick and violent in his passions, woman quiet and patient. Woman strives to effect her objects by kindness or by cunning, man by force.

Man interests himself in public affairs; woman prefers domestic life, and in her function of maternity occupies a centre of influence superior in importance to any that man can hope to gain. There, in her retirement, she sways the sceptre of the world. Silent and unseen, like

that vital force which clothes the world with verdure, she vivifies and organizes the human race. What she becomes, society is. If man is excluded from this important position, it is that he may be better fitted for his own "appropriate sphere," that of supplying the wants, and ministering to the welfare and happiness of woman. His superior strength of nerve and muscle has its use in doing the world's hard work-levelling the forest; smoothing the highway; tilling the earth; navigating the ocean; taming the elements, and fighting the great battle with nature and himself, for freedom and civilization. These, and the like labors Nature has fitted him for, and, by that fitness, imperatively calls upon him to perform.

Man has vigor and comprehensiveness of intellect. He writes epics, discovers mathematical truths, and constructs systeins of philosophy and of government; he invents machines, theologies, and the plots of novels. He has a great deal of what he calls "judgment," while there is a want of that quickness of decision that is often observed in woman. The conclusions that women reach by one electric flash of unerring instinct, men tug after with the slow and respectable movements of oxen. Man is deficient in emotion and affection. His tears do not flow readily, and in the strength, purity and faithful ness of his domestic attachments, he is quite inferior. He is less susceptible to religious influences than woman. In a society in which the church and state are disjoined, and the observance of religious rites entirely voluntary, he is much more negligent of them than is woman.

It requires but a glance at the masculine man to perceive, that though he does not combine in himself all human excellences, he is strong, and brave, and far-seeing. It is evident, therefore, that ail men of all times, whatever be their individual characteristics or tendencies, whatever the measure of their capacities, ought to be engaged in such labors, either bodily or mental, as are suited to the Herculean powers of their sex. There must be no doffing the lion's skin to spin with Omphale. "Nature pardons no mistakes." She has formed the male man to do the hard work and the hard thinking of the world, and whenever he forsakes his proper business, the interests of society must suffer in consequence.

It is undeniable that there are multitudes of men (weak minded men) who condescend to light and easy pursuits,

This

far more suitable to the delicate perceptions, the instinctive tact, and aptness for detail which characterize woman. is a growing evil and needs to be checked. Instead of "fulfilling their mission," by performing those onerous tasks that are too heavy and exhausting for the delicate constitution of woman, and unsuited to her higher nature, men have undertaken a great variety of manufactures requiring neither strength of muscle nor vigor of intellect. They have condescended to petty shop-keeping, to the vending of laces, and ribbons, and dolls' heads. Fancy the sinewy arm and strong hand of a man deploying webs of gauzy tex ture before the eyes of lady customers.and worse yet, with "large brain," cap able of I know not what "generalizations," deducting the cent a yard, “because it is you!”

An hour ago, I dismissed from my door a stalwart youth, equipped for the battle of life, with a small tin trunk full of various colored buttons. Fy on him! Is not the Hoosac yet to be tunnelledthe North Pole to be reached-the Pacific railroad and Atlantic telegraph to be constructed-perpetual motion and the quadrature of the circle to be arrived at? If these things are too high for him, let him chop wood, become the "chambermaid of cattle," or vindicate his growing beard in some way. "We feel it to be our duty” to warn the public against the dangerous example of these pedestrian sellers of buttons and sewing silk. To be sure, it is a very harmless thing when only now and then an unsexed masculine takes a fancy to so small a business, but suppose any considerable number of men should forsake their "proper sphere" to engage in such pursuits; in short (for our reason and rhetoric may as well jump at once to the customary climax), we should not like to have "our husband" peddle buttons, and therefore it is unbecoming for any man to do so.

Men have invaded the province of woman, by assuming the exclusive management of public schools for children, wherever such schools exist. Now, if there is a man, in one of all our fair States, that does not know that the peculiar, especial business of all women, at all ages, and under all circumstances, is to take care of children, “to mould the rising generation," to train up the future men of the Republic in the way they should go, that inan must be extremely ignorant. Of course he does not "take the papers." But women, even the

mothers of the children, are shut out from all legitimate influence over the public schools. We ought not to submit to this. The next thing, we shall find the nursery itself invaded, and men will take the very pap-spoon and bib from our hands. If "the men" are really sincere when they say that our especial mission is to mould the characters and form the minds and manners of the young, we may hope to live to see the dawn of the day when their ox-paced "judgment" shall slowly bring them to the conclusion, that, if woman is to train and educate the future men of the Republic, it is necessary for her to have the legal and pecuniary means of doing so. But our feminine impulsiveness is such that we can hardly refrain from goading on the deliberative sex a little, on this subject.

"We are willing that a" man "should dabble in ink and write books so long as his doing so does not involve the" wife's "comfort," but let his books always be of the masculine order-vigorous—original-humorous-profound.

Dreams,

and fancies, and reveries, though beautiful as the fringes of the morning cloud, and sparkling as the early dew, are not for him. Shallowness of thought, and inconsequential arguments are unpardonable in the strong-minded sex. We cannot forgive the man who is so unwise as to offer to the reading public, weak and worthless trash. He had better follow the plough, stand at the anvil, or even sit and lean his " large brain" against the wall, like poor Mr. Jellyby.

Weak-minded men, in long clothes, under any circumstances, are our aversion. We cannot tell why it is so-but the feeling arises spontaneously. So strong is this feeling that we cannot contemplate the spectacle of a man out of his sphere even in imagination, without experiencing it. Who has not felt how much epic grandeur is lost to the Iliad by that unaccountable episode of Hector and Andromache? Is it not a warrior's business to fight battles? Hector laying the plumed crest on the ground while he takes the baby!" Hector pausing in his career to toss the little crying thing in the air, and talk "baby talk" to it! What an absurd scene!

What a

moment of weakness! No wonder, when Hector so far forgot his "sphere" and becomes such a feminine man, that "Troy's proud walls" should "totter to their fail!"

My neighbor, a husband and father, embroiders in Berlin wool. His ottomans

and chairs are extremely well done for masculine fingers, but were he to become sensible of the fact that he has lost all his "charms" in our eyes, and that "we should not like to have our" husband "do so," doubtless he would give up worsted work at once, and fill up his leisure moments with the more manly amusements of whittling sticks, smoking cigars, gyrating on one leg of his chair, or hanging from the mantel-piece by his pedal extremities.

My friend R, a distinguished botanist, has found a new kind of violet-a red violet! He is in raptures. His "broad chest" expands with delighthis "arterial" circulation is quickened— a soft glow of pleasure lights up and beautifies his massive, craggy features, like sunlight on a rock. It will do no harm as long as it is only our eccentric friend; but suppose the masculine world at large should quit their "sphere," and rush to the woods-not to fell trees and haul logs, but to pick violets and admire their velvet petals! We shrink from the contemplation of such a possibility! If the men take to hunting violets, the women of course will have to cut timber, and shoot partridges, and hunt squirrels. My friend must be exhorted to suppress his dangerous example.

Things and persons do become very much jostled and out of place sometimes. One of the "emancipated "—one of those women who have very properly been termed strong-minded—but one whose fragile delicacy of body is so extreme that it might satisfy the most ardent admirer of female weakness and helplessness, was rusticating in some country place. During a solitary ramble she happened to find herself in a field with a herd of "moderately excited" cattle. A fiery bull began to approach her, evidently with exceedingly "hostile intentions." I do not know whether "a small boy" was in sight or not. But very much at variance with what Mr. Somebody has ingeniously supposed a "strong-minded" lady would do in such circumstances, she fixed her eyes on the glaring orbs of the enraged animal, and commenced a backward retreat to the nearest fence. What a pity it is that these two persons could not have changed places. The "broad-chested and large-brained" man should have looked the bull out of countenance, and the lady gathered red violets. Then these incidents, instead of being picturesque, would have been proper. The man and the

woman would have been each in their place, and we should not be driven to adopt one of two absurd theoriesnamely, that the essential elements of human nature are the same in both sexes-or, that it sometimes happens that the sex of the soul does not correspond to that of the body.

Women are generally thought to be more susceptible to religious influences than men. Besides their natural superiority in this respect, they enjoy all their lives the privilege of hearing the exhortations of that sex, who profess to be less inclined to religion than themselves. They are told that religion is consonant to their peculiar nature and characteristics-that they owe an obligation to Christianity for elevating their sex to companionship with men-and that religion is a source of consolation and support under trials. We make one or two extracts from a little book lately pablished by one of our best and most eminent advisers:

When the word wife is first spoken, woman's position in the world is completely changed. She has placed her Lappiness in the keeping of another, and the whole complexion of her life is fixed, for good or evil, according to the charac ter of him to whom she has surrendered her liberty." * * "Even where man is the greater sinner, woman is the greater sufferer. She is physically the weaker, and the strength of man, if unrestrained by principle, compels her to submit to insalt and suffering. She is confined to the narrow limits of home, and is there subject to petulance, anger, and unreasonable demands, and even to vile treatment, from men who are stupid enough to feel themselves, and sometimes brutish enough to call themselves, her masters. In a community where licentiousness prevails, where dissipation is fashionable, and the dram-shop a place of daily resort, you may see disorder and contention in the streets, and evidences enough of the prevailing corruption may meet your eye and ear; but if you would know the worst, follow the drunkard to his one: see his children shrink away from his approach; see his wife weeping for herself and for them; but thoughtful of him, receiving him with kindness, yet pad with a curse or a blow,-bound t Lin, even in his degraded state, by n arazing fondness, which makes her it once his victim and his slave. If the wife is unreasonable and wicked, the Husband may escape from her, and in

active pursuits of industry, or the gay companionship of the world, find partial relief. But for her there is no retreat, no escape: nay, the very nobleness of her nature, and the disinterestedness of her affections, sometimes prevent her from accepting deliverance, if offered; and through the long dreary day, with persevering care and decreasing means, she is compelled to labor, in sorrow of heart, in mortification of soul, until the closing hours bring back the suffering." ** "If woman understands her own nature, or her own interests, she will be religious herself, and do all she can to promote religion."

*

That is to say, there is but one source of earthly happiness for woman-one single interest that of domestic life. To foster any tastes not in the matrimonial direction; to acquire pecuniary independence; to seek for gratification from the study of nature, or history, or philosophy, or art; none of these things are expected of woman. Her business is to get well married. If she fail in this-and there is terrible danger, not so much of not getting married at all, as of marrying a bad man-all is lost. Woman ought to be a friend to religion, to diminish the chances of so unhappy a lot, as well as to support her under its trials.

It is plain that these considerations do not apply with equal force to men. I do not know that I ever heard of a man's being exhorted to become religious, in order to console him for having made a bad match! As religion is not peculiarly binding on men; as it is not peculiarly necessary to them; as it is not especially adapted to their characteristics; as they may, in case of domestic unhappiness, escape to the club-room and tavern, we may argue (following our models) that they need not concern them selves about it at all. They should leave that to the women. "Is there a pew to be hired in your church?" I overheard one man asking another. "I should like to hire one; I don't often attend church myself, but I should like a pew for my wife and family." Said another, when, commencing business in a new place, he wished to become popular, "I wish to have it understood that my wife is orthodor; but," added he, slyly," she is not a whit more so than you and I are." Several years ago the newspapers informed the public that the wife of a presidential candidate had joined the Baptist Church. The item went the rounds