THE CONGRESS OE WOMEN.

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“Mother Anna” of Saxony, born in 1531, daughter of Christian III. of Denmark, a Protestant, humane and wise king. She was educated by her mother, Dorothea, and the chaplain. In 1548, when seventeen years old, married August of Saxony, a wise ruler. She had fifteen children. She devoted herself to the moral and mental improvement of her people; she had faith in them and patience with the evil. She is called “ the mother of her country.” She multiplied schools for the people. The rich had tutors in their castles, but she raised the standard of education, making it prac­tical. Under her direction waste land was cultivated, and new foods introduced suited to the soil. On one occasion she headed the pioneers with a spade, carrying it in the procession in order to patronize agriculture, which she did much to improve. She devoted much time to chemistry, natural philosophy, botany, and studied for knowl­edge that her people needed; on all occasions tried to make her knowledge contribute to the happiness, comfort and wealth of her people. She did much not only to improve lands, but the houses of the poor. She aided her husband in welcoming and supporting the Dutch exiles and the cloth and cotton weavers who were driven from their homes by Christian persecution from Holland and France. She accompanied her husband on his travels to learn of the condition of her people and other nations. She distributed the best seed to the people, and taught them how to save and preserve it. She induced her husband to pass a law that every newly married couple must plant and graft two fruit trees during the first year of their marriage. A wise mother of her large family, and a loving, devoted wife, “mother of her country, too,” she is an example of the matriarchal ideal.

These women did

“ Mutually leaven

Strength of earth with grace of heaven.”

The great women active from 1450 to 1600 will tell you why the eighteenth cent­ury was so vital with progress, knowledge, and demand for human rights. It was the renaissance of the matriarchal ideal—knowledge with opportunity to work unhindered by supreme authority.

That the matriarchal spirit arose in the last century is seen by the awakened curiosity for knowledge: the Encyclopaedias began to collect; the British Museum was established 1753, and interest in Oriental languages began. Rollin’s ancient history told us of past nations. Excavations began, and the statues of the great Egyptian women came into view, telling us of a civilization that taught Greeks, Hebrews and Romans.

Women have risen in influence with the rise of these matriarchal methods, and this wider knowledge of higher civilizations than Europe had ever had under patri­archal rule. A republic is but a political order of a matriarchal home, as an empire is a patriarchal ideal. The evolution of our republic, as a political organization with matriarchal rather than patriarchal ideals, is a most fruitful study of human activity. The states are a family of children, each have rights and are free to develop individuality, but all must be true to the home, the union of all, the central head; and mark, this is not to obey a patriarchal will, but to adjust their way to order as in a home. It was thus that the uniting in ancient times, of many with one purpose created a greater force than even one mighty man over many slaves obeying his will.

This was the first great step in civilization, when individual passion had to curb itself to obey the law of the whole tribe. That was the work of early women in matriarchal times, and today it has to be repeated in every household by the mother teaching the child’s will that it must obey the law of the family, its rules and regulations. Each family repeats the history of the world. Thus the influence and light from the great, courageous mothers of the past help women of today. We should realize that we are a part of the history of the world. Those early women were great because with no example, only their own instincts—they first taught and trained children and men in industry, economy and foresight—those traits which make us different from the brute.