THE INFLUENCE OF WOMEN.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1870, 30 December 1874, Page 2

THE INFLUENCE OF WOMEN.

Beginning with the fall of Adam, and ending with the latest event in history, the influence of. women orer the actions of men is something marvellous—almost beyond belief. The Eastern Prince who, whenever he heard of any new offence, was accustomed to ask, " What's her name ? " was led to the inquiry by the same experiences which have made "a woman in the case " a recognised phrase in modern speech. History is full of the struggles which women imposed upon

nations and on men. Achilles and A«amemi.on quarrelled over the possession ot Briesis. even while seeking to punish the abduction of Helen; Jierodotus, the father of history, begins the world s annals with the two versions of the carrying ott of Jo Coming nearer to the verities of history, we find the impassioned story ot Pericles and Aspasia, and later ■tillthe wonderful sacrifice otDe^enes for Lais, the model. Even Ju us Taasar "the foremost man of all this world," forgot everything, including ambU,on m hi. Alliance with Cleopa^^ .nd Marc Antony .^th Cj-y^g, i°- W*7* »?ion for tie «m. woman. fc M ,nf.tuat on J°J, Lto the clo9B "SXSSS the «rand Monarch Lou,, £$* French history is the history of noble 'todies whose action* where ignoble. It is a charge not wholly groundless thut Luther brought abo.it the Reformation because he wished to mary ;. and Henry VILI., who ostentatiously claimed to be the Knglish reformer, was the husband of six wives during his lifetime. Napoleon's downfall dates from the time he divorced ; the wife of his youth for the Austrian princess who , brought .him a son but not a succeisor. History is a succession of episodes in which the influence of women marks the destinies ■-■taUKjteat men and powerful States. Poetry is but the repetition in a thousand disguises of the passion of Heldise and Abelard. Fiction; has no other purpose than to illustrate the relations of men and women, and the modern stage must content itseif-with giving life and form and colour to the passions with which the novelist or dramatist has imbued ;his creations. And in practical, everyday life, we occasionally meet the counterparts of tSe miscalled heroes and heroines ot history or the imagination. We have witnessed the remarkable spectacle of a wife and mother claiming Catherine Gaunt as her ideai. Even Hawthorne's " Scarle* Letter" seemed about to be reproduced scene by scene and sorrow, for sorrow. "What is so common to history, to literature, and to art must have a deep significance, and be indeed the groundwork of all social existence. .We have not cited these examples for an idle purpose, but as illustrating the . great lesson of all human, experience. In the earlier ages of Greek civilisation men captured the wives and daughters of their enemies, and States warred with each other in consequence. Later stili, Cleopatra lost a throne, and, it may be said, conquered a world by_ her fascinations^ From that hour up to the beginning of the eighteenth century, emperors and kings, despite the influence of- the Christian religion, were little better than this heathen queen and these heathen soldiers. Even George I. carried the " Maypole "■ and the elephant into Knghvad, and was not ashamed to be as vicious, in his dull German way, as the vivacious Charles 11. ,*The example of Louis XIV. corrupted every court in Europe, and society was as corrupt as the courts_,which setjthe, fiwiridn.- -*KoyaUf""^has grown better since the last century, and society, as a matter of course, has improved wiih royalty; while, strange to say, men of letters, the leaders of thought, the brightest examgles'of high dramatic and artistic culture, have been the heroes of the scandals of the age. That romance which savours of vice, and in which kings were once the principal figures, is now sought in the domestic infelicities of genius. Byron has the reputation of being the most profligate man of his age. Scott was unhappy in his domestic life. Lytton imprisoned his wife on a charge ot lunacy—his enemies say to be rid of her, Dickens turned away from his honie the mother of l»is children because she could not appreciate hi 3 genius aud minister to his vanity. \ These things were due, however, to excepN t&onal causes, and society in the lat>r agW^of'the world, had bo purified itself that (the latest great scandal seems almost impossible; so nearly impossible, to say the least^oi It, as to require the strongest a,ud m<ssfc unequivocal proof before it can be-Accepted. It' there i? always a woman in the case v sow aa lipre-tofore,. the_ Aspasins and V Cleopatras,*lhe false countesses and the "' ignoble ladies, and the whole army of women whose lives have been a wrong to womanhood, are fewer that ever before, while those whose work is high and pure and great and- gobd—with whom charity is the highest duty, and a bright example the noblest. aa-.bitibu—haye wonderfully increased in'number. and influence. But for false reform this would be almost a millennial epoch. Ifc is those who.are professing, to seek new spheres for women „ wbo are;tjje wost foes of womanhood. It is a noble cb aractcris'tic in a man to talre upon himself the severe toil for the race ~the surest sign of the real influence of women—the brightest thing in our modern civilisation. Jf-this Datural.divisions of'labour is to be disregarded; if women are to stand side by side with men in all vocations of life ; if the high estimation in which worn tip; are held is to be rudely set aside for some '"fanciful advan^- : tage, all the "gains oi'society v? ill be" destroyed, Free 4ove is scarcely /more [ "p&r»:Jious tlian the'other questions which .! *'few women arc--ajfitating and'which, are I--' akin to it^ ThVi influence of women, *o ' long feli for efil iatlie world, is at last feit"jii6ily for good; but it is as easy to go |>ackfeard as forward, and we certainly do not to crown the Aspasias and Cie^patrag over again.—New York i-. ''Herald.'''.' ";-"'' ''"'-*-'■: ' •,'