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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

together, held up to a common standard and rated only upon their merit. This ideal woman is intensely human. She is conscious that whatever else she may be, she is first of all a human being, with all the desires and limitations, with all the faults and aspirations, with all the virtues and failures that are common to the human family. She asks for herself only that which she is willing to concede as right for everyone else.

She has learned to look for and find the soul of goodness in things evil, the ele­ment of truth in things erroneous; her greatest quality, the spirit of justice which animates her. She takes reason, not sentiment, for her guide; she requires facts, not feelings, to persuade her; she condemns none, but seeks to find some cause of justifi­cation for all. If man’s inhumanity to man makes countless millions mourn, she knows that woman’s inhumanity to woman is death to millions more. She has ceased to com­plain of the cruelty of man to her sister woman, for she knows that doubly refined is the cruelty of women to those of her own sex. It is impossible for any man to inflict upon a woman the bitter injustice, the intensity of suffering that is possible for a woman. In warfare men may be cruel to each other, but in peace and among the ordinary types of men there is a freemasonry of spirit, a fraternity of interest which is rarely found among the higher types of women. The sisterhood of woman is talked of, but seldom realized among women, and it is a part of the lifework of my ideal woman to cultivate and extend this spirit of kindliness and courtesy which goes so far to sweeten and soften the dreariest pathway. She has a sister’s heart for all women. None are outside the pale of her sympathy and her compassion. She believes with Olive Schriner that “ true holiness is infinite compassion for others.” She is not dilet- ante; she is earnest. Life is serious with her. She has learned that society at its best is the science of living together in harmony; she believes that the mission of woman is to bring the feminine side of humanity into the world. We have been too long dominated by one sex. She does not desire, however, that we should be domi­nated by the other. The tyranny of woman would be as oppressive as the tyranny of man. The day of muscular force is gone, the day of nervous force has come, and with it has come the works of peace, the hum of industry and the need of women in the outside world—not because she has chosen to enter the field heretofore supposed to be the field alone of men, nor because she has been influenced by others to change so radically the ordinary tenor of woman’s way, but because the great unseen forces of life, aching unconsciously, have brought her there, and she appreciates now the impor­tance of her mission. Her journey was begun with as great a reluctance as ever the children of Israel felt on leaving the fleshpots of Egypt for the wanderings in the wil­derness; the luxuries of slavery seemed so much more desirable, even with the sure promise of the milk and honey of freedom; and when we know there are days and years of dreary wanderings in the wilderness, it is no wonder that many stand back appalled and decide to remain—and it is all right for them. Only the man or woman who has faith can ever hope to reach the promised land.

My ideal woman is essentially a domestic woman in the broadest sense. It is im­possible to my mind to conceive of a woman of high type as the woman without a home. If she has but one room she will make a home of it, and it will shine forth as the expression of her own individuality. It is the garden in which she grows herself. It is the one great distinguishing difference between men and women, and in behalf of my ideal woman, my woman of the world, I believe she is more devoted to the idea of home than many of the women of the old regime. And I believe that I can assert without fear of contradiction that hotels and boarding-houses are patronized propor­tionately more by women who are supported by their husbands or fathers than they are by women who support themselves. And further, I believe that every woman whose mind has been broadened by contact with the world is a better housekeeper, knows better how to keep the wheels of the domestic machinery oiled than the woman who never goes outside of the four walls of her home. She manages her household with the same kind of sagacity that a business man manages his factory or his count-