They laid the blame on Hagar, and drove her forth into
the wilderness.
But there were none the fewer Ishmaelites for that.
At last men became a little wiser, and saw that the infant Moses was,
in every case, saved by the pure instincts of Woman's breast. For, as
too much adversity is better for the moral nature than too much
prosperity, Woman, in this respect, dwindled less than Man, though in
other respects still a child in leading-strings.
So Man did her more and more justice, and grew more and more kind.
But yet--his habits and his will corrupted by the past--he did not
clearly see that Woman was half himself; that her interests were
identical with his; and that, by the law of their common being, he
could never reach his true proportions while she remained in any wise
shorn of hers.
And so it has gone on to our day; both ideas developing, but more
slowly than they would under a clearer recognition of truth and
justice, which would have permitted the sexes their due influence on
one another, and mutual improvement from more dignified relations.
Wherever there was pure love, the natural influences were, for the
time, restored.
Wherever the poet or artist gave free course to his genius, he saw the
truth, and expressed it in worthy forms, for these men especially
share and need the feminine principle.
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