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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

influence they exercise upon their age and the part they play in culture and progress, we may seriously ask ourselves in what respect we have raised the standard of womanly usefulness? And whether we are not in danger of losing sight of the homely virtues of wifehood and motherhood in our strife for public equality with men? If our best and brightest are to be devoted to competition with men in the learned pro­fessions, may w 7 e not question where the home-makers are to come from to whom we must look for the motherhood of the next generation which shall create our rulers? .Without doubt it is sweet and proper to serve one’s country in public; but what will result if only dull-witted ones are left to maintain the elevation of the home? In what shall we have excelled the women whose memories we have traced among the relics of their lost civilizations? Shall we, with all the gains of the ages about us, do no more than they have done before us? And if, from the sacred precincts of the home, we can not hope to achieve greater blessings than they gained for their kind, upon what point of vantage shall we plant the lever with which we women hope to move the world?