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    ORGANIZATION. 337

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    4 A Success It Was Said To His Of Talent...

    take tlie initiative in any movement of social importance . Women have hitherto waited to be ledwaited to receive instructions as to how

    they ought to act in emergencies , . Now that they are invited to extheir opinions as to the wisest and most judicious methods of

    press carrying forward measures for their own advantage , as well as for the benefit of the community at large , we cannot expect that all at

    once they should appear , like Minerva of old , armed and filled with every possible or rather impossible species of wisdom ; since

    hitherto no thinking of any kind has been asked from them , but on the contrary , they have been advised to trust entirely to their

    feelings—feelings which might be one way to-day and another tomorrow , just as the wind chanced to blow from the south or from

    the north . It is now found that feelings are not of much value in the matter

    of hard work , and hard work we fear many women will be compelled to perform before they can sit down at ease and indulge in .

    sentimental reveries which , in nine cases out of ten , are mistaken for feelings . As good works and a pure life are the fruits of a

    genuine faith , so , in like manner , rightly-directed exertions and plans . for a mitigation of the evils entailed on women in consequence of

    want of occupation , either remunerative or otherwise , should as . certainly spring from enlightened sympathy and knowledge .

    Feeling , standing by itself , produces nothing , and is as often a hindrance as a help .

    To this sympathy in women we appeal for women , in the hope that _, united in purpose and for one great end , efforts will be made to

    continue on a larger scale what is now begun for the aid and encouragement of all women who are anxious to help themselves .

    Surely whenever woman's ignorance or inertia interferes with her own happinessno valid reason can be given in the most civilized

    land more than , in the most savage why one or both should not have an end .

    At this moment every work of any consequence , no matter whether mental or physical , is done by means of association , * association is

    the order of the day , and women should follow so good an example ; they ht to learn to work in bodiesto have faith in each other

    and this oug combined with self-reliance , and self-respect , will enable , them to , attain a stability and force of action which it has not yet

    heen their good fortune to possess . It is said that women do not work well together , that each has

    her peculiar idea , and that the influence of one woman over another is almost nilconsequently that they either obstruct each otheror

    are indifferent ; . This allegation , like many others of the same kind , , is half true and half false , and , like all half-truths , has done its

    due amount of injury . Women in this country , ( except in sisterhoods of charity—such as exist in the Catholic Church , ) have never

    been called upon to act in bodies ; and from the . want of that organization which we are now desirious to promote , they must , even VOL . TI . A A .

    Organization. 337

    ORGANIZATION . 337

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1861, page 337, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011861/page/49/