Thus, from their inherited tendencies, as well as from the existent individuality of their nature, women must seek a high moral standard as their ideal, and acknowledge the supremacy of right over every sphere of intellectual activity. The highest type of moral excellence which we can find in the age in which we live, the beneficence which it exerts, the means by which it has been attained, form so many landmarks to guide us in our search for the right. This very important method of growth has been well stated by Huxley, that brave fighter in the past for freedom of thought. He has laid down this weighty principle, that ‘the past must be explained by the present.’ This principle is of very wide application. What produces the noblest human creature now in our nineteenth century? What inspires hope? What sustains us most bravely to fight the battle of life? What makes life most worth living? When we have ascertained these facts in the present, they will explain the past, and give the foundations of right for guidance in the future. It is a noteworthy feature of the present day that some of our best men, witnessing the failure of so many panaceas for the intolerable evils that afflict society, are longing for that untried force--the action and co-operation of good women. ‘Our only hope is in women!’ is a cry that may sometimes be heard from the enlightened male conscience. But still more significant is the awakening of an increasing number of women themselves. They begin to realize that truth comes to us through imperfect human media, and is thus rendered imperfect; that every human teacher must be accepted for his suggestiveness only, not as absolute authority. Women are thus rising above the errors of the past, above blind acceptance of imperfect authority, and are earnestly striving to learn the will of the Creator, and walk solely according to what they themselves, diligently seeking, can learn of that Divine will. There is no line of practical work outside domestic life, so eminently suited to these noble aspirations as the legitimate study and practice of medicine. The legitimate study requires the preservation in full force of those beneficent moral qualities--tenderness, sympathy, guardianship--which form an indispensable spiritual element of maternity; whilst, at the same time, the progress of the race demands that the intellectual horizon be enlarged, and the understanding strengthened by the observation and reasoning which will give increased efficiency to those moral qualities. The true physician must possess the essential qualities of maternity. The sick are as helpless in his hands as the infant. They depend absolutely upon the insight and judgment, the honesty and hopefulness, of the doctor.