and full expression of confidence, on the part of men, in her ability to perform this mission; and with her sensitive and shrinking nature, and her love of man and desire for his approval, these things are indispensable, and would arouse the latent energies of her spirit to a pitch of earnest determination and enthusiasm, that would be simply invincible in every good work. There is nothing so inspiring to any one, and especially to a woman's nature, as the consciousness of being considered worthy of trust. Give her the ballot and the responsibility that goes with it, and she will not disappoint our highest expectations.

But lest I be misunderstood, or it be thought that I misrepresent the demands of others, allow me to say before closing this Chapter that I do not, nor do the friends of Woman Suffrage generally, ask anything more for Woman than equal civil and political rights with man, leaving the question of priority under the new order to settle itself. This is all that is asked, and yet nothing seems more certain to me than that the spiritual era that will succeed the material, will secure to Woman the representative position; and I believe that men will concede it in a reverent loyalty that will be both an honor to men and the mothers of men. And the concession will not spring from a mere sentiment of polite defference to the sex; it will be founded on recognized merit. Woman will rank first, because the moral and spiritual interests of the race, which she is to assume charge of, will rank first in importance. It doth not yet appear what the new period will bring forth; what grand moral and educational projects for the betterment of humanity will be instituted; what new and beneficient systems of

knowledge, covering the whole economy of social life,
will be discovered and put in practice; what great prin-
ciples in spiritual science will be revealed; what divine
methods, what new arts and philosophies and princi-
ples and industries, will be evolved; in all of which
Woman will take the lead. None of these things can
we now foresee; but they will doubtless be commen-
surate with the spirit itself, and as much above, and
in advance, of the developments of the material age,
as the higher attributes and interests of the soul are
above the needs and propensities of the inferior life.
"Very near to the infinite nature,

Very near to the hand of God,
More rich than the hills of Beulah,
Which the white feet of angels trod,

Is the sacred heart of Woman,

The nature by which alone

The Divine can become embodied,

And the spirit reach its home."

CHAPTER VI.

THE DIVINE REPUBLIC AND ITS PRACTICABILITY.

The model Republic will be constructed on the dualistic plan of nature. As before explained, the universe is divided into two great hemispheres, the material and spiritual; and every perfect product of this system repeats and reflects these dual principles in a similar union. Our humanity, as a whole, represents these two hemispheres in the two sexes, and again, each individual member repeats the alliance in himself and herself.

Now the reason way existing governments and politics are so full of coarseness, brutality and corruption, is because of their one-sidedness; and the worse side at that, the material. The true Republic will combine, in due proportions, both the material and moral elements, both the masculine and feminine qualities. As at present organized, they are purely masculine, and, as a natural consequence, material; and so, of course, soulless, Godless, Christless, loveless and heartless; because we leave heart out, conscience out, moral element out, love out-in a word, Woman out; put her in, and it would be the best amendment to the Constitution to incorporate God and Christ and conscience and morality, into the organic life of the Republic, that the nation could possibly make. We should thus be sure of the substance, if not the name; of the spirit, if not the letter.

The Creator has wisely wedded the two sexes, and let no man put them asunder in any good work. Wherever the man can rightfully, honorably go, woman may go with him, should go with him, standing by his side as his moral helpmate, his inspiration and guardian angel. Woman should be recognized as the moral conservator of the State, and, under the new order of things, she will be. We can exclude her from nothing in safety. She is to man what the moral nature in the individual is to his material part, the regenerative force. Whenever an individual disregards the claims of the moral affections, and turns a deaf ear to the voice of conscience and the better promptings of the heart, that person falls at once under the sway of the animal nature, and as a consequence degenerates and becomes depraved.

And so when men go into anything alone, cutting loose from Woman's presence and influence, they go straight to the bad; their preponderating materiality, by a law of moral gravitation, drags them inevitably downward. How many illustrations from history and our daily experience might be adduced in support of this statement. Allow me to mention a few.

When, years ago, men got the "gold fever" and went to California, leaving their families behindgood and upright men, many of them, as were to be found in the States-what was the effect upon their morals by getting beyond the reach of Woman's refining influence? With few exceptions, they sank into nameless habits of nastiness, depravity, vice and wickedness. When, afterward, Woman followed to this Western El Dorado, instead of being contaminated by the depraved moral atmosphere in which she

found herself, and dragged down to their level, she lifted these men out of their degradation and restored them to their former selves. By degrees they got back to the old habits of civilized life-to soap and razors and clean linen and a respectable dialect; and now the condition of society in most parts of the State is as good and refined as in any portion of our country; and this great change is chiefly due to Woman's presence and influence. Go into any of the pioneer towns of the far West before Woman has made her appearance, and see what a villainous state of society exists. When she comes in, these evil spirits take their flight.

It is the opinion of chaplains, and other intelligent observers, that the principal cause of the great demoralization existing among soldiers, is the absence of Woman; and it has been found that even her presence in the hospital as a nurse, exerts a beneficial influence upon the morals of the whole army.

The time was when Woman was not a reader to any considerable extent, and the literature of that period, two or three centuries ago, was unfit for Woman to read. It is said that a Frenchman once wrote an essay to prove that Woman had the right to learn the alphabet; and among other objections he had to encounter, one was, that their books, made for men only, were so obscene that it would corrupt her to read them. How significant! when men have a literature, politics, gov ernment, or anything else purely masculine, exclusively for their own use and management, it is full of badness, coarseness and corruption! Well, Woman learned the alphabet and has become a general reader; has it corrupted her? O, no; but on the contrary she has