do, merely because they are women, and should be “recalled
to a sense of their duty as women,” and because
“this is women’s work,” and
“that is men’s,” and “these
are things which women should not do,” which
is all assertion and nothing more. Surely
woman should bring the best she has, whatever
that is, to the work of God’s world, without
attending to either of these cries. For what
are they, both of them, the one just as much
as the other, but listening to the “what
people will say,” to opinion, to the “voices
from without?” And as a wise man has said, no
one has ever done anything great or useful by
listening to the voices from without.
You do not want the effect of your good things to be, “How wonderful for a woman!” nor would you be deterred from good things, by hearing it said, “Yes, but she ought not to have done this, because it is not suitable for a woman.” But you want to do the thing that is good, whether it is “suitable for a woman” or not.
It does not make a thing good, that it is remarkable that a woman should have been able to do it. Neither does it make a thing bad, which would have been good had a man done it, that it has been done by a woman.
Oh, leave these jargons, and
go your way straight to God’s work, in
simplicity and singleness
of heart.
APPENDIX.
[Transcriber’s Note: The tables below have been rotated through 90 for easier display.]
TABLE A.
GREAT BRITAIN.
AGES.
| Nurse | Nurse | NURSES. | (not Domestic | (Domestic | | Servant) | Servant) | -------------------+---------------+-----------+ All Ages | 25,466 | 39,139 | Under 5 Years. | ... | ... | 5- | ... | 508 | 10- | ... | 7,259 | 15- | ... | 10,355 | 20- | 624 | 6,537 | 25- | 817 | 4,174 | 30- | 1,118 | 2,495 | 35- | 1,359 | 1,681 | 40- | 2,223 | 1,468 | 45- | 2,748 | 1,206 | 50- | 3,982 | 1,196 | 55- | 3,456 | 833 | 60- | 3,825 | 712 | 65- | 2,542 | 369 | 70- | 1,568 | 204 | 75- | 746 | 101 | 80- | 311 | 25 | 85 and Upwards | 147 | 16 | -------------------+---------------+-----------+
TABLE B.
AGED 20 YEARS OF AGE, AND UPWARDS.