is, on the whole, very well served by the existing laws; secondly,
because any alterations which might be desirable could very easily be
made without recourse to woman's suffrage; and thirdly, because the
suffragist consistently acts on the principle of bringing up against
man everything that can possibly be brought up against him, and of
never allowing anything to appear on the credit side of the ledger.

The arguments which the woman suffragist really places confidence in
are those which are provided by undefined general principles,
apothegms set out in the form of axioms, formulae which are vehicles
for fallacies, ambiguous abstract terms, and "question-begging"
epithets. Your ordinary unsophisticated man and woman stand almost
helpless against arguments of this kind.

For these bring to bear moral pressure upon human nature. And when
the intellect is confused by a word or formula which conveys an
ethical appeal, one may very easily find oneself committed to action
which one's unbiased reason would never have approved. The very first
requirement in connexion with any word or phrase which conveys a moral
exhortation is, therefore, to analyse it and find out its true
signification. For all such concepts as justice, rights, freedom,
chivalry--and it is with these that we shall be specially
concerned--are, when properly defined and understood beacon-lights,
but when ill understood and undefined, stumbling-blocks in the path of
humanity.

We may appropriately begin by analysing the term "Woman's Rights" and
the correlative formula "Woman has a right to the suffrage."

Our attention here immediately focuses upon the term _right_. It is