had occasion to mention their names!

But alas for human inconsistency! As for this inverse-ratio theory,--this
theory of virtue so exalted that it has never been known or felt or
mentioned among men,--it is to be observed that those who hold it are the
first to desert it when stirred by an immediate occasion. Just as a
slaveholder, in the old times, after demonstrating to you that freedom was
a curse to the negro, would instantly turn round, and inflict this greatest
of all curses on some slave who had saved his life; so, I fear, would one
of these philosophers, if he were profoundly impressed with any great
action done by a woman, give the lie to all his theories, and celebrate her
fame. In spite of all his fine principles, if he happened to be rescued
from drowning by Grace Darling, he would put her name in the newspaper; if
he were tended in hospital by Clara Barton, he would sound her praise; and
if his mother wrote as good letters as did Mrs. Trench, he would probably
print them to the extent of five hundred pages, as the archdeacon did, and
all his gospel of silence would exhale itself in a single sigh of regret in
the preface.




VIRTUES IN COMMON


A young friend of mine, who was educated at one of the very best schools
for girls in New York city, told me that one day her teacher requested the
older girls to write out a list of virtues suitable to manly character,
which they did. A month or more later, when this occurrence was well
forgotten, the same teacher bade them write out a list of womanly virtues,