She has invaded the professions. She cannot become a priest, because the Oriental prejudice against women still prevails, so that women in High Church places are not allowed to sing in the choir, or to play the organ, not to speak of preaching. For some reason or other, women have never written nobly on religion. They have written powerful religious novels, but there has never been among them a Dean Stanley or a Hooker. Nay, more, I have never heard of a woman carrying her classical studies into the ecclesiastical domain; and unless one is a scholar, it seems impossible to write nobly of religion. In the same way, she cannot enter the Law, because the portals of the Law are closed in her face by the Inns of Court, which will not allow her to become a barrister, and by the Law Institute, which will not allow her to become a solicitor. Some day she will get over this restriction, but not yet. For a long time she was kept out of medicine. That restriction is now removed; she can, and she does, practise as a physician or a surgeon, generally the former. I believe that she has shown in this profession, as in her university studies, she can stand, _inter pares_, among her equals and her peers, not her superiors. There is no branch of literature in which women have not distinguished themselves. None, it is true, in which they have attained the same distinction as a few men--a very few men; but among those called the foremost in their generation, woman stands their equal. In music they compose, but not greatly; they play and they sing divinely. The acting of the best among them is equal to that of any living man. They have become journalists, in some cases of very remarkable ability; in fact, there are thousands of women who now make their livelihood by writing in all its branches. [Illustration: _Painting by W. Simpson_ HER MAJESTY’S VISIT TO THE AMERICAN SHIP “RESOLUTE,” 1856] There are artists of all kinds--oil painters, water-colour painters, black-and-white artists, sculptors, workers in pastel, carvers; in a word, every art that exists is practised successfully by women. As for the less common professions--the accountants, architects, actuaries, agents--they are rapidly being taken over by women. It is no longer a question of necessity; women do not ask themselves whether they must earn their own bread, or live a life of dependence. Necessity or no necessity they demand work, with independence and personal liberty. Whether they will take upon them the duties and responsibilities of marriage, they postpone for further consideration. I believe that, although in the first eager running there are many who profess to despise marriage, the voice of nature and the instinctive yearning for love will prevail. [Illustration: THE ROYAL VISIT TO THE GREAT EXHIBITION, 1851]