THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
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not like Sidney and Addison, both learned and polite. In fact, some seem to think rudeness a necessary part of their outfit. But this austerity may be organic. They may affect to be very good companions, when really their world is only large enough for one person. Occasionally we find a man so exquisitely made that he can and must live alone. But the majorities can not live in solitude. It is by constant contact with the world and its work that we are made happy. When we live with people and understand them; when we can adapt ourselves to circumstances; when we can fall in with the spirit of the times, without allowing our sympathies to degrade us, or our better natures to be overcome, then we place ourselves upon vantage-ground for doing good, and, if well disposed, can accomplish much.
Intelligent Americans realize that the true test of civilization is not in the extent of the public domain, the area of the crops, the returns of the census, or the wealth and grandeur of cities. It is rather in the kind of men and women that our systems of education and government produce.
People with much work before them must learn to discriminate with reference to the distribution of time and energy. They have no time to waste in discourtesies. It requires more time and effort to undo a wrong than to do the right thing at first. How the feminine soul is sometimes vexed with taking to pieces and making over ill-fitting garments! What diplomacy is sometimes necessary to correct some social error. It is a great part of the art of living to be able to do the right thing at the right time. Each should map out some line of work and pursue it. If the choice is domestic duties, then let those duties be well and faithfully done. If teaching, then let us magnify our calling. If ministering, let us wait on our ministry. Every line of work has some drudgery connected with it, but it need not be degrading. All honest and necessary work is ennobling.
Heretofore women have not tried to see what they can do along certain lines of work. So, today, they are surprised by their wonderful achievements, and are saying that it has been given to the nineteenth century to discover woman! Many achievements are possible. If some fail for lack of scholarship, or rhetoric, or eloquence, they may still be loyal, patriotic, and public spirited. They may thrilhby their personality, although they may not sway by their oratory.
It was Sir Philip Sidney who advised his brother, saying, “ When you hear of a good war go to it.” There are good wars to which we should go, though not with sanguinary intentions. Our influence and effort should be on the side of patriotism, of temperance, of chastity, of equality before the law, of Christianity. When we hear of a conflict along these lines we should go to it. But the most highly-favored persons are not always the most successful. Most of the great men and women of history come from the middle classes, and this fact makes one believe that it is worth much to have some difficulty to struggle against; to have some obstacle in life to overcome; to have some hardship to endure. Often the great trials of life are the great purifiers of human nature. Do we not sometimes covet the privileges of royalty, and yet fail to perceive that royalty must suffer all the physical ills which are the lot of common mortals? Even the queen mother must bear the pangs of maternity. But greater 'than the privilege of royalty is that profound blessing which comes to the person born with a bias for some particular pursuit or definite calling, in which both employment and happiness may be found.
When, from any cause, a swarm of bees has lost its queen, it proceeds at once, in a most curious fashion, to provide the conditions by which the loss may be made good. It is purely a matter of environment and food, when, lo! as by miracle, the common worker bee becomes a queen. If the mere matter of space and food have such influence on insect life, changing form and function, how much more may these influences change the life and character of human beings! In our examination of self let us inquire whether we have sufficient space for growth and development. Is not our world too angular and too narrow? With greater opportunities would we not make greater advancement? There is a stimulating power in mutual sympathy, and when