Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

244 LETTERS.
brothers from the dangerous temptations of intemperance and licentiousness. By advocating and voting
for a peaceable international settlement of difficulties,
they may do much to prevent husbands, sons, and
brothers from being butchered in battle. War is a
horrid barbarism, which ought to cease throughout
the civilized world. But even war is no exception
to the rule that masculine and feminine elements
should everywhere cooperate together. None can
help so efficiently as women in the hospital department of war, and their usefulness might also be great
in the commissary department. The more the
sphere of woman's activity of thought enlarges, the
more her character and capabilities enlarge. The
more her attention is taken up with important subjects, the less time and thought will she expend on
fashion and frivolous amusements. During the War.ef the Rebellion, there were sudden changes of character in mere worldly women, that seemed almost
miraculous. Ladies, who had been accustomed to
while away the hours of life with fancy work, manifested a degree of executive ability in the sanitary
commission, and in the hospitals, which astonished
their husbands and brothers. The power had always
been in them, but it had not been developed, because
they had not been called upon to use it. The women
of Asia have the same human nature, and the saunm
natural capabilities, that we have; but in those countries they spend their time playing with dolls and
chattering with parrots. If they had been brought
to New England as soon as they were born, they
would have become clerks, authors, doctors, painters,
and sculptors, and enlightened domestic companions
for intelligent men, and sensible, judicious mothers of
coming generations.