"
Similar sadness at the birth of a daughter I have heard mothers
express not unfrequently.
As to this living so entirely for men, I should think when it was
proposed to women they would feel, at least, some spark of the old
spirit of races allied to our own. "If he is to be my bridegroom
_and lord_" cries Brunhilda, [Footnote: See the Nibelungen Lays.]
"he must first be able to pass through fire and water." "I will serve
at the banquet," says the Walkyrie, "but only him who, in the trial
of deadly combat, has shown himself a hero."
If women are to be bond-maids, let it be to men superior to women in
fortitude, in aspiration, in moral power, in refined sense of beauty.
You who give yourselves "to be supported," or because "one must love
something," are they who make the lot of the sex such that mothers are
sad when daughters are born.
It marks the state of feeling on this subject that it was mentioned,
as a bitter censure on a woman who had influence over those younger
than herself,--"She makes those girls want to see heroes?"
"And will that hurt them?"
"Certainly; how _can_ you ask? They will find none, and so they
will never be married."
"_Get_ married" is the usual phrase, and the one that correctly
indicates the thought; but the speakers, on this occasion, were
persons too outwardly refined to use it.
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