O God of my fathers, that thou hast created me according to the good pleasure of thy will." And so to-day, when we look on this grand women's council, never possible until to-day, I think we may say, "I thank thee, O God of my fathers, that thou hast created me a woman." I was once taunted by the saying, "Women will never be equal to men," and I remember the retort of Ernestine L. Rose on one of our platforms in Edinburgh. She said to the chairman: "Mr. Chairman, I believe it is a law of nature that no stream can rise higher than its source."

It is but twenty years ago since Josephine Butler, the leader of the social-purity movement in my own country, was hooted in the streets of Liverpool, and people used to draw aside their skirts as they passed her. It was only eighteen months ago that in London there was a great meeting on this social question. The bishop of London was in the chair, and Josephine Butler sat at his right hand; and I thought of the time then and the time now. When Josephine Butler rose to speak all who were in the hall rose to their feet, and gave her what you call the "Chautauqua salute." But they were not content with that. Three times they rose to their feet, and the men waved their hats, and many of them sat down and hid their faces in their hands, thinking of the old times and of the new.

I was in the city of Edinburgh when the women students were trying to get a foothold to qualify themselves as physicians, and do you know that these women were hooted at, and had rotten eggs thrown at them?

The old University of St. Andrews, in Scotland, has opened every door to women. There is no section of philosophy or science that is not equally open to men and women, and that is owing to Prof. Knight, of St. Andrews. We like to remember those who have helped us.

I want to say now that fifty-one of the distinctions in the art classes were gained by the women in October last, and eight of the association students were kept for the M. D. degree on the 10th of October; so we are steadily advanc

ing, and this old world is growing brighter. I can not restrain my emotion when I think of the glorious opportunities that are open to women. Let us rise to a sense of the importance of entering every open door.

Now, dear friends, let us women in Great Britain, and you women in America, and the women from every land, clasp hands, while we pledge ourselves that we will labor and pray for the early dawning of that day when women as well as men shall be free politically, socially, and in every department of life.

M. LOUISE THOMAS OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTATIVE OF THE WOMAN'S CENTENARY ASSOCIATION, THUS CONTINUED THE DISCUSSION:

We seem to see the fulfillment of the prophecy, "The meek shall inherit the earth." A victory has been won by patient, loving women, whose souls have been stirred from the earliest days by suffering under inequality, while patiently bearing the limitations, and waiting for this hour. I can not help thinking to-day of those who wrought without even hope of final success in this world; who waited. for the fulfillment of their desires in that better land where all is perfect justice. In the early days of California I remember being told of a miner, who took up a claim, saying, "The signs here lead to gold." He worked on until one by one his fellows fell apart from him. Still he wrought on alone until the months ran into years, and his fellow-men said he was becoming insane. He was growing old and his arms were growing feeble. The time was drawing near for him to rest, when other men, won by the power of his enthusiasm and his patience, said, “We will take his place." These new men, with the power which capital gives, placed their improved machinery at work, and soon the marvelous riches of a Comstock mine lay spread before the world.

Now, gentlemen and ladies, that early worker typifies the

women who wrought alone in the darkness. The capitalists who came in to gather the gold, and spread it upon the earth, represent those of to-day who, seeing the work of the women, see, also, the need of women's influence upon the earth. Let us then not seek to win fine praises; let us not ask men for their applause; let us only ask that our work shall be measured, and that justice shall be done.

DR. EMILY HOWARD STOWE OF CANADA, PRESIDENT OF THE WOMAN'S ENFRANCHISEMENT ASSOCIATION OF CANADA, CONTINUED THE DISCUSSION IN A BRIEF ADDRESS, READ BY DR. AUGUSTA STOWE GULLEN OF CANADA.

Man, and I use the term in its generic sense, is preëminently a social being, but to be entirely companionable there must be on the different planes of our being that equalized social evolution which alone can result in harmony. I believe that the social element in woman has been choked and stifled by the ignorance, the stupidity, and the selfishness of man, as also by her own indifference to the demands of her higher self.

A person can not evolve what he has not involved; and whatever women en masse lack in their social development is the direct result of the barriers placed in woman's pathway to such development by her brother man, who viewed her as standing only at the level of the lower or physical plane of his being. I need not substantiate my statement by illustrations to this intelligent audience; I need not go back and refer to man's antagonism to woman's acquiring knowledge, even of the alphabet. Every progressive, at least every professional, woman of to-day knows right well how much energy and time she has been forced to sacrifice in her efforts to secure the means necessary to her evolu tion; and even when her efforts have been crowned with success, how tardily the recognition has been awarded her. Herculean have been the efforts that have won for the woman of to-day her social and civil standing.

Primitive man, having acquired ascendency over his fellows through muscular power, relegated woman, with her less objective and less material forces, to an inferior plane; and this fact has been an active factor in the long, dark past, ever tending to depress woman, who is eminently the conserver of the subtler and higher powers.

The nineteenth century has brought a reversal of the old order, has discovered woman's potentialities, and to-day is using them wisely and well. She has found her true place in the realm of the ideal, and by the force of her great love-power is bringing man, the offspring of her love, up the mountain with her. Neither men nor women are as yet developed, socially or civilly, to the highest of their capabilities. One can not very far transcend the other, linked as they are by the common ties of nature and blood. Humanity is a unit, and the sooner we all discover the problem of life, and work for the equal and harmonious evolution of universal humanity, the sooner will an allround social and civil evolution be attained.*

WOMAN AS A SOCIAL LEADER ADDRESS BY JOSEFA HUMPAL-ZEMAN OF BOHEMIA.

In the very beginning of the human race woman had the care of children and the home, or whatever might serve for a home. As the race developed, passing from one stage to another, from simple to more complex, her home duties enlarged, and soon formed a nucleus of society, so that in the early history of the Egyptian and Hebrew peoples we find woman already a great factor in social life.

This influence grew until the age of Greece and Rome was reached, where usage, more despotic and tyrannical than law, exacted of matrons and other women a life of

* Dr. Jennie de la M. Lozier concluded the discussion with an admirable address, of which, however, no report is obtainable.

extreme seclusion, forbidding them to live in society, to cultivate the exquisite social arts which give intellectual interest to the female sex. Yet, had not these women burned with noble aspirations and patriotism Greece would never have had her greatest patriots. And even where such strict effort was made to keep women out of wider social influence, women like Sappho, Aspasia, Lais, and Phryne held a preeminently brilliant position, being courted by philosophers, poets, politicians, and princes. In Rome there was a decided change in the position of women. The Roman matron possessed all the patriotism of the Spartan, without her cruelty and coarseness, and all the purity of the Athenian without her extreme seclusion; and yet, as Mr. Higginson says, "She fell short of the modern European in that intellectual refinement and high accomplishment which, combined with virtue, belong exclusively to Christendom."

In the social life of the Roman woman we see a decided step forward, for her influence outgrew the limits of her family, and she became a factor in national enterprises. The oft-quoted Cornelia, the inspiration of the Gracchi; or Tullia Attia, the genius of Octavius; or the women of Rome, during the siege by Brennus and the battle of Cannae, giving their jewels for the service of the republic, testify to a great interest in the national crises, and comprehension of them.

Again we find in the history of the French Revolution that society seemed to be disorganized. When men were intoxicated with the thirst for blood, women, like Madame de Staël, Madame Necker, Madame Tallien and others, used all their power to reorganize the social system, opening their salons, in which men were inspired to nobler efforts, rescuing the unfortunate victims from the guillotine, and bringing with them peace and order.

While man acted as the provider and protector of home and society, woman was the leader and inspiration of it, serving always where she was most needed. Her life and