[Lydia Maria Child] ALS to Anna [Loring], July 1, 1871

politicians, and the guidance of statesmen. And in
order to have an understanding sympathy with these
things, they must have part and portion in the performance
of them. No reading or hearing about great events, or great
principles, can possibly educate the human soul like
actual participation in them. In fact, we only really
know that which we do. I believe that separa-
tion of the sexes, in any department of life, is contrary
to divine order. You know in my fanaticism about
the meaning of music, I was accustomed to say that
music revealed everything, and prophesied everything,
if we could but understand it. In this case, it is,
as ever, a true prophet; for music, in all its modes of
expression, is incomplete unless treble and bass, tenor and contralto, move
on together. You will remind me that they are an octave
apart. True; but they sing the same notes on different
keys, and the harmony of their voices, whether human
or instrumental; gives completeness to the Battle Hymn
as well as the Prayer. Kinmont, in
his "Natural History of Man," says one of the best things
that has been said on this subject. After alluding to the
account given by Tacitus of the bravery of the ancient
German women, he goes on to say: "You ask if I con-
sider this right, and deserving of approbation; whether
I think women were here engaged in their appropriate
tasks. I answer Yes; it is just as right that they should
take this interest in the honor of their country, as that
the other sex should. Of course, I do not think that
women were made for war and battle; and neither
do I believe that men were. But since the fashion of
the times had made it so, and settled that war was a
necessary element of greatness, and that no safety was
to be procured without it, I argue that it shows a health-
ful state of feeling in other respects, that the affections