“The pityin' words of Him who went about pleasin' not himself, hants me, and inspires me. I am sorry for Dorlesky, sorry for the hull wimmen race of the nation--and for the men too. Lots of 'em are good creeters--better than wimmen, some on 'em. They want to do jest about right, but don't exactly see the way to do it. In the old slavery times, some of the masters was more to be pitied than the slaves. They could see the injustice, feel the wrong, they was doin'; but old chains of custom bound 'em, social customs and idees had hardened into habits of thought. “They realized the size and heft of the evil, but didn't know how to grapple with it, and throw it. “So now, many men see the great evils of this time, want to help it, but don't know the best way to lay holt of it. “Life is a curious conundrum anyway, and hard to guess. But we can try to get the right answer to it as fur as we can. Dorlesky feels that one of the answers to the conundrum is in gettin' her rights. She feels jest so. “I myself have got all the rights I need, or want, as fur as my own happiness is concerned. My home is my castle (a story and a half wooden one, but dear). “My towers elevate me, the companionship of my friends give social happiness, our children are prosperous and happy. We have property enough, and more than enough, for all the comforts of life. And, above all other things, my Josiah is my love and my theme.” “Ah! yes!” says he. “Love is a woman's empire, and in that she should find her full content--her entire happiness and thought. A womanly woman will not look outside of that lovely and safe and beautious empire.” Says I firmly, “If she hain't a idiot, she can't help it. Love is the most beautiful thing on earth, the most holy, the most satisfyin'. But which would you like best--I do not ask you as a politician, but as a human bein'--which would you like best, the love of a strong, earnest, tender nature--for in man or woman, 'the strongest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring'--which would you like best, the love and respect of such a nature, full of wit, of tenderness, of infinite variety, or the love of a fool? “A fool's love is wearin': it is insipid at the best, and it turns to viniger. Why! sweetened water _must_ turn to viniger: it is its nater. And, if a woman is bright and true-hearted, she can't help seem' through a injustice. She may be happy in her own home. Domestic affection, social enjoyments, the delights of a cultured home and society, and the companionship of the man she loves, and who loves her, will, if she is a true woman, satisfy fully her own personal needs and desires; and she would far rather, for her own selfish happiness, rest quietly in that love--that most blessed home. “But the bright, quick intellect that delights you, can't help seeing through an injustice, can't help seeing through shams of all kinds--sham sentiment, sham compliments, sham justice.