Susan B. Anthony Speeches & Writings File Report on Educating the Sexes Together 1856 Report on Educating the Sexes Together Written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton Delivered by Susan B. Anthony New York State Teachers Convention Troy, N.Y. 1856 S.B.A's - Report on -Educating the Sexes Together [*Mrs. Stanton wrote this speech delivered [at the N.Y. Natl] Teachers Convention held in Troy, [N.Y.] August 9, 1856*] Mrs. Stanton. [?] Mr. President Gentlemen & Ladies. [Has been copied.] The subject upon which I am to address you, requires a more extended survey of the objects & purposes of life, than the mere question proposed seems to involve. Is it desirable that the sexes be educated together? This subject may be presented in a variety of phases, each depending on the peculiar view of the mind entertaining it. In regard to all those speculations, based on the common theory, that man & woman are two distinct creations, - differing in all their manifestations of mind & body, - placed here for a different purpose, & to fulfil a different destiny, I have nothing to say. The view that I shall present (I would not make any concession or apology.) 2 to you must be taken from quite another & opposite stand point. It is far from my intention to introduce here any unpleasant topic, or to refer needlessly to] the [odious] subject technically termed "Woman's Rights". I simply claim that latitude in the presentation of my subject, that a full discussion of the question logically demands. - If in doing so, I wound the sensibilities or shock the prejudices of any present, I beg them to remember, that in every human soul there is bound up much truth & error. fa who can say I possess all truth and am free from all error- Give me, therefore, a patient hearing for the truths I bring you, & let my errors pass from your minds like chaff before the winds. [Begin] I propose to present my thoughts under the three following heads. - 1st The Identity of the sexes.- 3 2nd Life's purposes, objects, end, aims, & future destiny the same.- 3rd A similar education required for beings of the same instincts, appetites, impulses, passions & powers. - 1st The Identity of the Sexes It is impossible to decide what the education of a being should be, until we first ascertain its nature, & by experiment it's capacities for development. How to educate a woman, can never be satisfactorily settled, until we first decide what a woman is.---- This always has been a vexed question to the mind of man.- In his love or his wrath, we are angels or devils, but never flesh & blood - creatures of like passions with himself. Therefore must woman herself assert & reassert the fact of her identity. - And by & by If God never intended woman to be an Artist - a Poet - a Sculptor a Painter, - the pen of Elizabeth Barrett Browning would never have given to the world an "Aurora Leigh" - the chisel of Harriet Hosmer a "Beatrice Cenci" - or the brush of Rosa Bonheur, the painting of the "Horse Fair". [painting] 4 man will come to believe that she is what she is. Centuries ago, it was not believed that woman could learn to read or write. Now man is proud to tell how well she can do both. --- By & by he will rejoice too, in the resemblance he clearly sees she has to himself. - All will then admit the fact, that is already fully proved to the most careless observer, that in mind there is neither male or female, boyhood or girlhood - In spite of all the fanciful theories about the mysterious nature of woman - & the indescribable, intangible difference that exists between her & man, the every day facts of real life all go to prove them one. - The only difference we perceive is simply a sexual difference, which change in no way either head or heart; -- but by 5 which every power of mind & body is more fully developed & intensified. - A mysterious influence, which we all see & admit, common alike to both man & woman in a natural, healthy condition; -- & which so far from proving them different makes both the more perfectly & completely one. This sexuality in no way affects the indi- vidual manifestations of mind or body. "Behold man eats, & drinks, & sleeps, & so does woman.- He loves, hates, is angry impatient, unreasonable, tyrannical, & so is woman. -- He is religious, penitent, prayerful, dependent, & so is woman. - He is courageous, bold, selfreliant, enduring, & so is woman.-- In fact, what has man ever done, that woman has not done also."-- What does he like, that she does not like too?- Are not 6 our hopes & our fears for time & eternity the same?- What virtue or vice, what aspiration or appetite, has ever crowned or clouded the glory of manhood, that we have not seen in woman too, it's beauty or it's blight.- [*X*] In country schools, where boys & girls are educated together, sex is lost sight of on the play ground, & in the recitation room. - Who has not seen a girl, many a time, washing a boys face in the snow?-- In studying Algebra & Geometry, in reading Virgil or the Greek Testament, who ever found any feminine way of extracting the cube root of x, y, z?- or any masculine way of going through the moods & tenses of the verbs amo ? [& dupto]? This is no new idea, but was advanced in the last century, as fully as the most radical of us now claim it. The Rev. Sidney Smith one of the most rigorous & factious writers among British 7 Essayists, says on this point. -- "A great deal has been [said] made of the original difference of capacity between men & women; - as if women were more quick, & men more judicious, - as if women were more remarkable for delicacy of association, & men for stronger powers of attention.- All this, we confess, appears to us very fanciful.- That there is a difference in the understandings of [the] men & women, we every day meet with, every body, we suppose, must perceive; - but there is none, surely, which may not be accounted for by the difference of circumstances in which they have been placed, without referring to any conjectural difference of original conformation of mind.- As long as boys & girls run about in the dirt, trundle hoop together, they are both precisely alike.- If you catch up one half of these creatures & train them to a particular set of actions & opinions, & the other half to a perfectly opposite set, of course their under- 8 standings will differ, as one or the other sort of occupations has called this or that talent into action- There is no occasion, surely, to go into deeper or more abstruse reasoning, in order to prove so very simple a phenomenon". This same thought has been more fully elaborated by one of the most scientific minds of our own day.- "Intellectually considered", says our author, 'the woman is a man.- She has all the mental capacities of a man.- She has memory, reason, & imagination, which as Bacon tells us, constitute all that belongs to mind.- She has the same sensibilities, the same emotions & desires, as a man. - She has a will entirely like his.- The laws of all these functions of the soul are the same in both. - The work of education, therefore, which consists in expanding all these common powers, is emphatically one. - [There are some people, however, who think, that as there is some acknowledged] 9 [difference between the sexes, there should, consequently, be two different systems of education- We therefore hear of such things as male & female educations;- but I have yet to learn any philosophical basus for this distinction.-] Do we know of any sexuality in our mental faculties? - Do we know of any such thing as a male memory, or a female memory?- [Do we know of any such things as] Are there male & female reasons, male & female imaginations, or male & female wills? - We speak, it is true, of the will of a female, but never of a female will.- So we may speak of the mind of a female, or the soul of a female, but never of a female mind & soul.- The mind, the soul is neither male nor female. - It is simply the immortal part, essentially the same under both conditions, & requiring essentially the same treatment. That portion of this human nature, in 10 which there is really a difference, is not only physical, but exactly that part of the physical, which comes not within the range of scholastic discipline.- That which is common to both sexes, is precisely what the world has proposed to educate - & this work is to be done certainly by a common course of training.- There is a large [no small] amount of fine rhetoric, but very false logic, lavished upon this subject.- [You have seen that] As there is no fundamental difference, between the soul of a man & the soul of a woman, [& that as a consequence,] there should be no fundamental difference in their education.- But the same would be true, or might be true, if there were a difference in their mental constitution.- Let the distinction be as great in mind, as it is in body, & still there would be no proof that the man must have one kind of mental aliment 11 & the woman another [kind]. - The [wisdom of the] All-wise God has settled this question for us.- This principle of sexuality is a universal [principle] one [in] throughout organic nature.- All living things, inhabiting the three elements, - land air, & water - from the viewless aphis, that lives his hour upon the tiny leaf, to the Ichthiosaurus [or Leviathan], that crawled among the rushes & [the] ferns of the giant times of earth,- from the lichen that creeps upon an arctic rock, to the towering palm that holds his head highest among the tall sons of a tropic forest, - all have this distinction of the sexes, as clearly & as widely marked as it is in man.- And how do all these get their develop[e]ment, their growth? - Has the Omniscient Creator seen it necessary to have two systems of alimentation, - [two sets of means] for the support & increase of this twofold but universal life?- 12 Do not the male & female plant, the male & female animal, through the entire range of animated being, inhale the same vital atmosphere, drink from the same gushing fountains, bask in the same vivifying sunlight, & draw all the resources of their existence & growth from one common storehouse? - If, then, in relation to the physical, where the principle of sexuality does undeniably obtain, it would be ridiculous to talk of male & female atmospheres, male & female springs or rains, male & female sunshine, or male & female elements in any part of nature, how much more ridiculous it is, in relation to [the] mind, to [the] soul, to thought, where there is as undeniably no such thing as sex, to talk of a male & female education, and of male & female schools! - As there is no sex in the work to be done, so there should be no sex in our way of doing it." -- And this brings 13 me to the consideration of my second head - Lifes purposes, objects, end, aims, & future destiny the same. - Those who have written on woman, her education, & her destiny, have, I think, as a general thing, been more influenced by a stereotyped theory, than by [the] facts [of life]. [Here & there] in every age, [has] some woman has lived [sprung up], who [&], by her learning, heroism, or virtue, has vindicated her sex against the popular faith that woman came not complete from the hands of her maker, but was purposely created in folly & weakness, dependent on the superior wisdom & strength of man. For a moment, cast aside these [vain] speculations, & see what woman has done.- She has governed nations, led armies, guided great movements of charity, established missions, founded schools, filled the Professors chair, taught mathematics 14 & Philosophy to the "savans" of her age, discovered planets, made inventions, piloted ships across the sea; - she has already taken her place in the learned professions, as Physician, Divinity, & Law Student.- We now have our public lecturers on Physiology, Literature, & Reform, - & our political orators [on the 4th of July]. Yes! with Guns & Cannon, with waving flags, & Martial [Marshal] music, woman now utters her patriotism with eloquence & enthusiasm; - [& she too rejoices in the day that this mighty nation declared itself free.] - - - Then too, women are [not only] type setters, [but] editors & publishers, [of papers & journals] - [&] authors of works on History, Political Economy & Statistics. -- Women are Clerks, Book-keepers, Sculptors, Painters, Engravers, Watch Makers, Farmers, Machinists [Daguerian Artists], Dentists, Shoe makers; - In Massachusetts alone, more than 21,000 women work on shoes. - And everywhere, there are about as many women as men, who earn their bread by daily toil.- 15 Many women now hold offices under government. - There are in the United States, more than 250 women at the head of Post Offices, & a far greater number who act as deputies.- In Michigan, a woman is deputy Light House Keeper on a salary of $500 a year.- In Maine, Miss Olive Rose, of Thomaston, Lincoln Ca is Register of Deeds, by the vote of the people. - In several towns of Massachusetts, the precedent is established a placing women on school Committees. in Canada & Michigan they vote on school matters, -Look over the educational reports of this & other states; - Are not the teachers 5 to 1 women? [Now] do not all these facts prove that the life purposes of man & woman are the same?-- As we take a survey of the human family, we find a great similarity [of] in the end & aim of their existence.- To earn their bread to keep the body from perishing, seems to be the prominent, object of the masses.- Man & woman alike, must eat or die.- In this mighty struggle, we see woman, on all sides, thrown 16 on herself, -- on her own brain, & the two hands God has given her. -- Every woman is born into this world alone, & goes out alone. -- There is no simultaneous birth of a wise male head, to guide & direct, or a pair of strong arms to stay & support her. -- Alone, & for herself, must she explore the hidden mysteries of earth, - & alone must she pass to that unknown bourne, from whence no traveller returns. -- And has not the good Father armed & equipped her well for the sufferings & triumphs, alike of life & death -- All reason & experience teach us that it is the will of Heaven that each immortal shall stand on a pedestal of his own building. -- [Every human being, who has health & strength, & the five senses common to all, is on an even platform, --whether male or female. -- all are bound to labor. --] [That any are disabled, is not in accordance with the will of God, but the result of ignorance &] 17 [violation of the great immutable laws, which he has established, intended to insure a condition of perfect health & uninterrupted happiness to the whole human family.] - - [Next to the preservation of the body comes the development of the mind. How few know aught of the high spiritual pleasures that flow from the harmonious unfolding of our intellectual & moral natures.]- - The object of education is the highest happiness of the individual. - Though all have duties to one another & the race, yet the ultimate aim of each is happiness. - True, the whole human family, are in a measure dependent on one another, our joys & sorrows are shared in common, yet are there individual rights & duties, of which each soul takes cognizance for itself, known alone to it, & its Creator. It has been the received opinion that man was made for himself, & woman for him. - We preach a new doctrine. -Woman, equally with man, was made 18 for her own individual happiness, to develope every power of her three-fold nature, to use every talent, given her by God, in the great work of life to the best advantage of herself & the race. It is not for man to point out the sphere in which she may move. We claim for her the range of all creation; to do whatever God has given her the power to do. [to stand on any height where her brain does not grow dizzy.] [The fish that live in yonder quiet river, cannot glide through the air, on mountain tops, nor the birds that build their nests in mighty oaks, skim the limpid waters of the deep blue lake.] Then open your College doors, [gentlemen], teach woman all that she can learn. If God never intended her to teach or preach, - to plead in the pulpit for erring sinners, or at the bar of justice for the unfortunate culprit; if he never intended that her voice should be heard 19 in a Congress of Nations, in Eclesiastical Assemblies, or Educational Conventions, she will never fill such places.- What we ask is , that you will [quietly] & [patiently] permit us to find out for ourselves, the will of God concerning us.- [We are placed here with the same implements of support & defence that you possess.-] We find [we] that all of us have the same objects & purposes in life, - bread & happiness.- Now is it wonderful, that after years of experience & observation, we have [come to] reached the conclusion, that man's way of getting his bread is easier than woman's. - We are coming down from the garrets, & shall give up making shirts for a sixpence a piece; we are coming up from the cellars, where we have baked & brewed, washed & ironed, cooked & scrubbed for a shilling a day. -- We are coming out from all the nooks & corners of humanity, to proclaim before all Israel & the sun, that the Mothers of the race, have a right to the earth & the fulness thereof. - [Yes,] 20 [Gentlemen,] woman now demands in tones not to be mistaken, that every avenue to learning, wealth & distinction be freely opened to her. - And the education necessary to meet such demand, is just what you claim for yourselves. - Whilst the objects & purposes of man's life are various & endless, public sentiment dooms woman's hopes & aspirations all to one channel, _ namely- marriage. - Every woman is directed therefore, to fit herself for a wife & mother, - as if marriage & maternity were the sole and certain destiny of all. -[And] But, if so it is a position the most difficult to fill of any [other,] in our earthly pilgrimage, - & demands more than [any &] all others, the development of every power of body & soul.- If any of the race need to be thoroughly educated, it is the mother. [above all others] --[Now] Although we hear a great many rhetorical flourishes on the "dignity, sacredness, & responsibility of woman's mission", when 21 we come down to fact, man seems to think but little education is needed to fulfil that mission [fill those posts]. -x What [can] need has a woman [do] for [with] mathematics, the languages & sciences! - Must she study the theory of Angles, Diagrams, & Circles, to put her house in order, - and [to] make her pancakes round? - Before she can learn to wash her dishes & bathe her baby, must she understand all the laws of Hydrostatics! - No! [Gentlemen] so long as all women are not blessed with dishes & griddles, houses & babies, - & no one can tell in girlhood, who [the chosen ones] will be so blessed, or "who ['ll be] left to bloom alone on the parent stock," is it not well that all prepare themselves for the terrible emergency of self dependence? - A woman needs no particular kind of education to be a wife & mother, any more than a man does to be a husband & father. -- A man cannot make a living out of these relations, - he must fill these - & something more, - & so must woman. -- Both 22 want their whole natures developed, what each one will be or do, is an after consideration. Hundreds of wives & mothers are now compelled to support themselves. - Husbands & Fathers die sometimes, & leave those depending on them destitute. --- In spite of all the sentimental nonsense we hear about trust & dependence, - the oak & the vine, love & reason, we see that sometime in life every woman is left to stand alone. We propose to teach this lesson in girlhood, let her early learn selfreliance, & [to] look forward with confidence, to a life of independence. Every father, who is able, should thoroughly educate his daughter, just as he does his son, & give to her some trade or profession, - some honorable means of selfsupport. [Would you not rather see the daughter you love & cherish, the honored President of some flourishing College, - the successful silk merchant] 23 [in the City of Philadelphia, (the heroic pilot on a rock bound coast), than the wretched wife of yonder licentions debaucher, whose splendid palace & equipage but mock her misery, than the poor milliner in a crowded city, than the cook on a miserable sloop or canal boat?] The only lasting distinctions in life, are those that are the result of education. Virtue & independence go hand in hand. If you would stop the terrible side of licentiousness that is now sapping the foundations of the strength & glory of this nation, educate your women to the stern virtues of heroism & self-dependence. [No matter if they are not so soft & winning & attractive, as the fair seignoras & donnas of Italy & Spain.] [In a Republic, Men need mothers, more than mistresses, And in times like these, the nation calls for sons who will not cower before a southern tyrant, who will not see Gods Image made a slave.] 24 Thirdly - - A similar education required for beings of the same instincts, appetites, impulses, passions, & powers. [I think I have proved, at last, a sufficient resemblance between man & woman, & their objects & purposes in life, to demand for them the same kind of education. ] If the same education is desirable for both, why should the sexes be separated in the pursuit of it? [There is no good reason certainly, but every reason why boys & girls, men & women should be always together.] Horace Mann, than whom, no one has written more wisely on education, strongly recommends the same institutions for both. - He thinks it the only way that woman can be liberally educated for many years to come. There are good colleges for young men over all the land. If by the influence of an 25 enlightened public sentiment, woman may not enter these, which are "begging for students, and offering education, almost, without money and without price," who is prepared to meet the great outlay of building and sustaining similar institutions, [all over the country] for girls? [No one! - Man will not, for the mass of men think it quite enough for woman to know how to darn stockings and make puddings. ] Our rich men will not, we have no Yales, Harvards, Girards, or Lawrences, to found and endow Colleges for girls. - Such men have given their millions, to enrich the 250 Colleges for boys in our country; but how many have given their first thousand to endow a College for girls? Our rich women will not do it, for their devotion to man is so great, that educate him they will, at any expense. -- Caroline Plummer 26 a single lady, of Salem, Mass. who had accumulated a fortune of $100,000 [died last year. She] left $15,000 to Harvard [College] to endow a "Professorship [of the heart" which as men will turn into one] of Moral Philosophy, -- $30,000 to the Salem Athaneum, and $30,000 to found a farm school, at Salem, for boys" Catharine Beecher, in a letter to the last annual meeting of the "American Woman's Educational Association, says "During the four years in which your Association has existed, more than $100,000 have been given by our American Women, to increase the professional advantages of the other sex; -- enough to establish and endow five such institutions as we aim to provide for girls, & yet the first endowment for even one, is yet to be received -- And it will be seen that plans are now in operation to raise hundreds of thousands the coming year, to endow Professorships for men, & to add to the advantages of rich colleges; & that for this, in proportion to 27 their means, women will be [more] relied on more than men." Yes, & woman will continue to form societies, [& sew pin cushions, even,] to educate young men, when, perchance not one in ten of the members of those societies, can themselves speak, or write the English Language correctly. The State will not do it! From the richly endowed Colleges that hail each other from the hill tops of New England, to the less favored ones that rise from the Savannahs of the South, & the Prairies of the West, [I] can point [you] to but two that have been denied an appropriation from the State. I allude to Oberlin, Ohio and McGrawville, N.Y. and [But] these are the only colleges that open their doors alike, to boys & girls, white & black. That [industrious] indefatigable friend of women's Education, Emma Willard, who has sent hundreds of well educated teachers to all parts of [all over] this union, has besieged our State 28 Legislature, year after year, for some appropriation for Female Seminaries; - And, get their quota of the Literature Fund, is the only crumb, that these institutions for girls, are permitted to gather from the munificence of the Public Treasury. The needs of woman are too imperative to be delayed.- She cannot afford to wait the result of the experiment, good as it is, now proposed by Catharine Beecher.- Too many years must intervene, before such institutions as [that Association] she contemplates, can afford the advantages, which the Colleges we now have, already possess.- The Standard of Woman's education has been too low and superficial, -& her whole being, by false systems of education, & false views of life & its purposes, has been so dwarfed & perverted, that it will take years to produce Presidents & Professors, equal to those we now have at the head of our Colleges.- But [And] if such institutions could 29 be [spoken] called into existence to day, - & a faculty of women spring up simultaneously from the brains of their fathers, fully armed & equipped for the work, -we still say let the sexes be educated together, let [them,] boys and girls have the same kind of training physically, as well as morally & intellectually ---We have no schools, from the common district to the college, where girls are trained as the boys are. -The boy six years old, may declaim, the girl of eighteen may not,- The boy may debate [& before audiences], but the girl may not. --The Colleges of Oberlin, Antioch, [McGrawville] & Lima, claim to place all their pupils on equal grounds, yet [in all these except McGrawville] the girls are restricted as the boys are not, both in body & soul. - -Whilst the boys are free to [take solitary] ramble over hill & dale, - whilst they are free to think & talk, & speak & write, & do whatever they have the capacity to do, there are in all these institutions except McGrawville some special x [At] McGrawville is the only College in which [the] girls are allowed the privileges of Declamation and Discussion, precisely as the boys are- 30 restraints + limits for girls. ---Why is this so? [And why this is so, I cannot understand.] -If they are afraid in the literary discussions, that the girls will out do the boys, some teacher should prepare the dear fellows beforehand. -If they are afraid the girls will molest the boys in their solitary rambles, they ought to send some Professor to protect them; -or else imprison the boys, at least, one half the time. -Common justice demands that the girls, however [if ever so] dangerous, should sometimes enjoy a little freedom. Professor Morgan of Oberlin, in lecturing before his class [last winter,] said "the discipline acquired by declamation & discussion is one half an education" -And yet in that very institution, the girls are deprived, not only, of this one half of their education, but are denied even the poor privilege of reading their own Graduating Essays.- 31 Lucy Stone, Antoinette L. Brown, & Sallie Holly, the only graduates from Oberlin, known as orators, were subject to this discipline. -Lucy Stone would not brook such an insult to her womanhood. -She demanded, of the Faculty, permission to read her own graduating essay, -they refused.- then said she, "it shall not be read."- Antoinette L. Brown was allowed to [discuss] debate in the theological class, -but simply because the Faculty, not having contemplated the fearful emergency of a Woman's Studying Theology, had no Bye Law to shut her out. -- Women [of genius,] all over the country, are now demanding a liberal education. Shall it be said, that Colleges, which we have helped to build & endow,- colleges which are [pining] languishing for the want of students, dare not open their doors to woman? --Is there not chivalry enough left in man's nature, 32 to move him to make some return for all our generosity? -He might, at least, share with us his present advantages? [or form societies to educate young women of genius.] Can it be that brothers & sisters, who have played together in infancy, -joined in common sports through all the years of childhood, -shared each others joys & sorrows, cannot in safety tread the same college halls,- read the same books, -listen to the same lectures, & pursue the same paths of science in purity, & peace?- Surely not, in this county, where all girls enjoy the most unlimited freedom out of school, can such an objection be seriously [entertained?.] If boys & girls are permitted to go, unwatched & unattended by parents & guardians, to take evening promenades in crowded cities,-to Pic Nics in sequestered groves, -to dancing schools, parties, 33 balls, operas, etc. Surely they might play ball, & skate together on College grounds, draw diagrams on the same blackboard, -[by] make chemical experiments with the same apparatus, -[chop?] logic on the same subjects, & run swift races on the road of science, [always under the watchful eye of a vigilant police].- All those, who have [bred] made the experiment of teaching schools of both sexes are in favor of the system. --They say boys & girls together learn faster, & behave better, than either do separately.- And this is perfectly philosophical. -The [sexual difference is stimulating & restraining to both] sexes both stimulate + restrain each other.--We shall never understand the full power of [this] that mysterious element in our being, in civilizing or refining the race, until our social qualities are properly educated & developed.- [Governments must, for their own protection, limit the powers of Emperors, Monarchs,] 34 [& Presidents, -but the power of the teacher is limitless, boundless; -for to him is given the direction & development of the whole being.- What avails a cultivated intellect, if the moral & social powers are misdirected? -] It is objected, that our Colleges are such sinks of iniquity, that no young lady of refinement & delicacy would consent to enter one. Surely, then, no wise mother would willingly have her sons subjected to such terrible influences.- These [gross] College boys are to be our future husbands. -Better that the work of refining & purifying them begin now; -for the more noble, pure, & virtuous the woman, the more grievous is a life long union with vulgarity & vice. --If it were fitting for Florence Nightingale to go to a Russian Hospital, -& witness all the horrors & abominations of war & license, -to minister 35 to the wants, & bind up the wounds of man's mortal body, -then is it doubly so, for pure & loving sisters to take their place in all our institutions of learning, & convert these intellectual lazar houses, into moral nurseries for our future statesmen & heroes. - Be it their mission then to watch & guard their erring brothers from all temptation; -& by their lives of purity & virtue, rebuke vice wherever it dares show itself.- These College boys are to be our future fathers.--Shall they carry the taint of sin & death, from [these] hot beds of vice & immorality, to poison the sacredness of our future homes, [to darken the pure & heavenly light, that circles the brow of new-born innocence?] If our Colleges & schools are not nurseries of morality & religion, where & how shall man prepare himself for the holy sacrament of marriage?- 36 Womans destiny is bound up with man's.- She must pay the penalty of his crimes. -It is not left for her to choose. -What he is, must she be. -Their paths through life are clearly side by side. -The sexes have been too long isolated in their life work, -& we are now reaping the terrible retribution of this unnatural divorce.- Again, it is objected, that there are many studies which boys & girls could not pursue together.- Physiology & Anatomy for example.- Professor Fairchild of Oberlin, who has written ably in favor of educating the sexes together, says on this point, "Let not a zeal for woman's elevation betray you into any arrangement, which offends against decency & propriety. -No true regard for woman or the race, could open the doors of our medical schools to promiscuous classes of both sexes, or associate women with young men, 37 in a dissecting club, over a human subject.- Such offences against modesty, are crimes against our common nature. -In the name of all that is decent we have a right to protest against them. -That such a thing is possible shows a sad lack in the provisions for woman's education, & a downward tendency in our civilization." --- --- --- One fact is worth volumes of Philosophy.- Elizabeth Blackwell, whom all of you [all] well know, went through an entire course in the Medical College, at Geneva, - & then passed three years in the hospitals of France. --- --- She is now a practicing Physician in the city of New York.- A woman of cultivation & refinement, - & leads a life of unquestioned purity & usefulness. -So much for the effect of such training on her!-- During her entire course, the students treated her with marked deference & respect. -No matter 38 how boisterous, & uproarious they might be, at any time, when she entered the room, they became quiet at once, & assumed towards her, their usual gentlemanly deportment. - - It was the testimony of the faculty, that they never had a more orderly & attentive class. - The students complained, however, of the great restraint imposed on them, by the presence of a woman, which was [no doubt] doubtless just what they needed, - For, as the Professors gave their usual course of lectures, omitting nothing on Miss. Blackwells account, they did not learn less, but probably lost many opportunities of letting off coarse witticisms, & vulgar jokes. [which was no great loss to the world. So much for the effect on them] [On one occasion, the Professor sent word to Miss Blackwell, that she had better absent herself from class that day, as his subject was one she might not wish to hear. - She replied, that if he & the students] And since the success of Elizabeth Blackwell, scores of women have graduated from the Medical Colleges now open to woman 39 [had no objection, as she wished to be thoroughly informed in her profession, she could not afford to loose any thing important to be known. -She took her seat in class that day as usual.] [Elizabeth Blackwell graduated with the highest honors, & the lasting respect of her class, & its professors. So much for the effect on all.-] [All admit that the study of Physiology & Anatomy is important for woman. -If it is, Man must be her teacher in the beginning. -And if man may teach her, why not learn with her? --- --- If woman must consult man, about all the diseases peculiar to her sex, why not learn what they are with him?] [If our present civilization, & excessive delicacy permits man to be an accoucher, - if it will permit man & woman to visit the galleries of paintings & statues in the old world together, --- to import and practice in our first] 40 [circles here, all the voluptuous waltzes & dances of Southern Europe, -pray let man & woman study what is useful, --- what will benefit the race, together, -& have done with all this twaddle.] Neither man nor woman can be properly developed, except [unless the sexes are] together. ---[Our whole system of education, as well as our theology, is too much after the old Roman Catholic Model.-] We have crucified & tortured nature long enough, -Let us now follow her dictates & ponder well her simple teachings.- From Eden was the first declaration issued, "It is not good for man to be alone." --- --- In the history of nations, ever & anon, we see man making the experiment of starting colonies by himself. -Behold how speedily he becomes harsh & uncivilized!- California is the most recent example. -And how soon did public sentiment, on all sides, 41 exclaim, woman must go there.- It is not that woman is of a higher nobler nature than man, that her presence is needed; --- but because humanity, every where, needs the reciprocal influence of the sexes, one on the other. --- --- --- We see this in every day life. --- --- Is the conversation of a gathering of men exclusively, as pure & high toned, as it is when woman is present? [At a tea drink of women alone, we must admit, that the freedom & familiarity all feel, too often runs into gossip & vulgarity. --- --- Woman needs the elevating, restraining influence of man, full as mush as he needs any aid from her, in refining & purifying him. Another objection urged against educating the sexes together, is, that boys & girls in the same institution, might have [get up] 42 flirtations, make love, & involve themselves in matrimonial entanglements.- All these things they do now. --- There is not a spot on this green earth, where a boy is safe from the soft, persuasive blandishments of the "weaker sex". [If Adam in Paradise, could not maintain himself, how shall any of his earth born sons?- Behold the danger of weakness!] [The only remedy, I see, is so to Educate woman, that she too will be interested in the every day work of life. - Fill her soul with noble purposes & aims, & she'll have no time or inclination to pull man down from his sublime heights of knowledge and rectitude, where he would fain dwell in solitude & peace.] Our Colleges are all in the neighborhood of Cities and Villages, where the society of girls may be had at any time.- 43 These frequent [occasional] evening visits, where they meet by artificial light, & with artificial manners, dressed and prepared for the occasion are [lastly?] more injurious that every day association in college.[only stimulates the mind the more.-] The mysterious nature of woman, is now a chief topic of conversation in all our Colleges. --- Students think & talk more about the young ladies, than their books, studies, or Professors. --- --- And from the earnest manner in which they look at any "fair one", who many chance to pass the College doors, one would think a girl a natural curiosity. [some fossil remain, or meteoric light, & not merely a budding specimen of womanhood.] Just so in our seminaries.- Let a brother call to see his sister, & twenty girls are on tiptoe to get a look at him. --- And then, to hear them talk about his mustache, -his new style of hat, & the cut of his coat, one would 44 think the veritable "Beau Brummel" himself had passed in review before them.- Now all this would be ended [done with], if boys & girls were in daily contact with each other, in plain school dress, & every day manners. Meeting as they then would in their normal condition, in their natural characters, pursuing the same branches of science, rivaling each other in their intellectual struggles & success, there would be little for the morbid imagination to feed upon. --- --- Each would stand in his own true light; --- --- The dispositions of all would be thoroughly understood --- The tyrannical, the irritable, -the selfish, the lazy, -the good, [&] the true, the noble, [&] the generous, -the orderly, [&] the industrious, would each & all stand fully revealed to the whole school.- Matrimonial entanglements, would, [I think] if made under such circumstances, be more wisely I do not like them, because it recognizes an interpretibility between these vocations - just as the world changes. 45 entered into, than they now are.- Then, too, there is no surer way of postponing the whole question of marriage, than by filling the mind of woman with some profitable subject, until she arrives at the age of maturity.[twenty-five, at least,-the proper time for the first consideration of a step so important in its results] [Were the girl properly educated to a life of self-dependence, whilst at College, she too, would be looking forward to some trade or profession. --- --- (Her ambition once aroused, she might "Mirabile dictu" possibly prefer to be the successful advocate- at the bar of justice, or the learned Professor of some flourishing College, to the much love wife of a John Rogers, --- or the devoted mother of ten charming children.)] -Open freely to woman all the avenues to wealth & distinction, that men [you] now 46 enjoy, and marriage be a matter of choice not necessity. [& she will not be so ready to inveigle your sons into matrimony.] If a girl were generally considered as available as a boy, in making a fortune, & in doing honor to herself & family, we should not have so many anxious Fathers, maneuvering Mothers, & despairing Daughters, continually on the lookout for some hapless wight to be entrapped, & made to work, like a galley slave, all his days, to support a woman, fully able, by nature, to support herself. - But if our Colleges should be thrown open to girls, they should pursue every branch of learning there taught, unless they be stimulated with the same hopes & opportunities [necessities of] in the future, which boys have [the boy has], these advantages would be [are] almost in vain. - For if the future woman is not to be permitted to have a choice in [go up & down] 47 The vocations [the great walks] of life, [if she is to have naught to do with the science of government, Politics & Religion, the girl will,] she ever and anon, will pause in her successful career of scholarship, & put the question, to herself, what avails all this to me, if, as soon as my College course is ended, I am to make no practical use of my education.[be buried alive, under the shadow of some tall man's wing?-] You all know how powerful a stimulus the poor student feels, who has his own fortune, his own position, & his own destiny to carve out. Contrast him with the son of a millionaire, who already possesses all that the world can give. --- Unless he love study for itself, or have a towering ambition, what is there to impel him onward? All woman are in a measure, 48 in the condition of the rich students.- They depend on something out of themselves. - And both alike are sometimes disappointed, for riches & husbands often take wings & fly away.- [Hundreds of women among the gay butterflies of fashion are pining for work to do. -The trifles of life cannot satisfy the wants of any great [human] soul.] In a full review of this whole subject, - in reading over Educational Reports, & Inaugural Addresses of some of the best minds of the day, we [I] see that man has not yet grasped [taken in] the idea, that woman needs to be educated for her own individual happiness. --- Educate her, say they, because she is to be the mother of sons, - the teacher of children, - the 49 companion of men. -All very well.- But no one seems to think of her own pleasure & enjoyment, -of her own discipline & development, -of the satisfaction [joy & repose] it would bring to her own soul.[sad longing heart.]- You who have tasted the bliss of intense intellectual enthusiasm, -who after hours of toil have solved a perplexing [knotty] problem, -who after days & weeks of labor, have produced a splendid speech, [to electrify a nation's heart,] -after years of darkness, mysticism and doubt, -[perplexed with the seeming discord, jargon & contradiction of every thing on earth & in heaven,] do at length behold all things harmonious & beautiful, - [under the government of fixed immutable laws;] - You 50 who can praise God as he is, - and rejoice in man as he shall be; - can you not call out from that blessed mountain on which you stand, - to all the dwellers at your feet, - woman as well as man, - "Come up hither, and measure with us, the height and depth, the length and breadth which the human soul can compass [bound]? -- Here feast your eyes on the grandeur & sublimity of all around you, - Here let your souls drink deep, - this is the heritage of immortality." Education is the ladder on which the soul climbs up, beyond the mists & clouds of earth, & there beholds all things in the clear sunlight of truth. - How often in his pilgrimage through life, does the true Philosopher, in rapt wonder, pause, & think of all he 57 sees. --- The mysteries of nature, her mighty forces, & tremendous outbursts, are not more impressive, startling & grand, than are the upheavings, & comprehensive powers of the mind of man. - Such vitality can never die; -- it cannot expend itself in time & eternity. - All forces in mind & matter are subject to the same immutable laws. - And the grand result, the future destiny of all immortality is the same. - Whether that electric spark on earth, has glowed under fair woman's form, - or under the proud white, or degraded black man's skin, - it is all the same - What folly, then, to suppose, that for the few short years of probation, every tribe, & color, & sex, has each its peculiar set of faculties. - We, are [who] [are] to live, & work together forever - It would be wiser far, to shape our present life, with its ever varying theories & customs, - based on neither science or reason, to the eternal changeless nature of the immortal mind - Open, then, your ears to the living truths: [I proclaim to you this day,] - The Soul of woman, formed in the image of the infinite, incomprehensible Jehovah, demands for its full development, [all the aliment] the best that earth [& heaven] can give. - It is impious to talk of limits to the human mind. - The sphere of woman; - it is as boundless as eternity! - Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.