And shriek aloud their battle cry!
The dawn of Truth lights all the skies
And crime and wrong and fraud shall die.
WOMEN WHO HAVE INFLUENCED THE WORLD:
by the Rev. S. J. Neill
AS gravitation existed before Newton made his discovery, so, also, has the influence of woman exerted a powerful sway among many nations long before the modern movement towards woman's emancipation.
That the modern movement is a powerful one cannot be denied by anyone who knows what is going on in the world. The wise study the action of the winds and waves and use them for beneficent purposes. We smile at the picture of the English ruler ordering back the tide; and at the Persian ruler who commanded the waters of the Bosphorus to be castigated. The woman's emancipation of the present day calls for careful study and wise direction on the part of all lovers of human welfare. Everything which gives a clearer understanding of woman in her own nature, and in her relation to man must be of service. What women have done in the past may throw some light on what woman may achieve in the future. As "lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime," even so the lives of great and noble women are a beacon light and a prophecy.
Though a truism, it must never be forgotten that woman's nature and her function in the world differ from man's. Many mistakes have been made, and are still made, through forgetting that woman and man are two aspects of the One Life in manifestation; therefore they are not opposed to each other, but are complementary of each other—"like perfect music unto noble words." Milton has tried to express this in the well-known lines: