same may be said of each of the other reforms. The abolition of slavery
had its infidel advocates; so had the temperance movement, etc.; and
these advocates have to a certain extent damaged their respective causes
by their advocacy of them; yet the tide of human progress has been
onward. A claim which is based upon justice may be injured by an
extravagant, irreverent, or profane advocacy; but it is still a just
claim, and as such, without respect to its advocates, entitled to
recognition.

Polygamy, slavery, drunkenness, and the doctrine of the inferiority of
woman to man, are all alike the offspring of sin--all alike relics of
barbarism--alike the enemies of God and human freedom.

Long-established prejudices and old usages, no matter how false and
oppressive, are, like the everlasting hills, hard to be removed. But, as
the mountains themselves have been overcome by skill and hard work, and
the valleys are being filled by persevering toil; as the crooked is
being made straight and the rough places plain, so that the people of
this mighty continent may travel with ease in palace-cars from sea to
sea; so must the strong barriers of prejudice, ignorance,
misrepresentation, and indifference, be removed by the force of truth
and sound reason, and women be admitted to their legitimate position in
society, with equal prerogatives accorded to them, that they may thereby
more perfectly exert their natural influence in improving the world.




CHAPTER VI.