infusoria up to man, the female animal moves, breathes, looks,
listens, runs, flies, swims, pursues its food, eats it, digests it, in
precisely the same manner as the male: all instincts, all
characteristics, are the same, except as to the one solitary fact of
parentage. Mr. Ten Broeck's race-horses, Pryor and Prioress, were
foaled alike, fed alike, trained alike, and finally ran side by side,
competing for the same prize. The eagle is not checked in soaring by
any consciousness of sex, nor asks the sex of the timid hare, its
quarry. Nature, for high purposes, creates and guards the sexual
distinction, but keeps it subordinate to those still more important.

Now all this bears directly upon the alphabet. What sort of philosophy is
that which says, "John is a fool; Jane is a genius: nevertheless, John,
being a man, shall learn, lead, make laws, make money; Jane, being a
woman, shall be ignorant, dependent, disfranchised, underpaid"? Of course,
the time is past when one would state this so frankly, though Comte comes
quite near it, to say nothing of the Mormons; but this formula really lies
at the bottom of the reasoning one hears every day. The answer is, Soul
before sex. Give an equal chance, and let genius and industry do the rest.
_La carrière ouverte aux talens_! Every man for himself, every woman for
herself, and the alphabet for us all.

Thus far, my whole course of argument has been defensive and explanatory. I
have shown that woman's inferiority in special achievements, so far as it
exists, is a fact of small importance, because it is merely a corollary
from her historic position of degradation. She has not excelled, because
she has had no fair chance to excel. Man, placing his foot upon her
shoulder, has taunted her with not rising. But the ulterior question
remains behind. How came she into this attitude originally? Explain the
explanation, the logician fairly demands. Granted that woman is weak