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    256 a woman's pen.

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    40o The Chester And Hereford Railway Pas...

    bear out the assertion , women as a rule , have a repugnance to lifeassuranceand where individually this is not the case— -the premium '

    on their lives , , if single , runs so high , as to be a bar to any very general assurance of female lives in ordinary affairs . But the

    principle in itself is certainly so sound , that through it literary women might organize some plan of self-assistance which in time

    might be developed into an institution of the most useful kind . At least , I think so . But with this contingent , that the method of

    self-help , whatever it be , must , as far as distinct action goes , be merely provisional . Much ameliorative work as woman has to

    effect for herself , it will never do for her to separate herself into a mere party of sex , except provisionally . Circumstanced as she is at

    present , with so many obstacles to clear away , she must as it were act as expediency best shows ; but when once the simpler points are

    obtained , then the more her advances , her reformations , her duties coalesce with those of men , the better will it be for the great inte- .

    rests of society . Thus , would literary -women gather together a provisionary sum ; could they through this means eventually

    establish a fund on the principle of the Friendly Societies , —a few of the Manchester unions affording admirable examples both as to

    rules and well-considered tables , —it might , in time , be worthy of incorporation into a General Assurance Fund , which would embrace

    the literary _iclass generally . Such a preliminary movement women miht surely organize for themselves . "

    g " I should say so . An accumulative fund spreading over a period of five yearsfor instance , would beget in those intrusted

    , with its management , those business habits which might afterwards be valuable . As Mr . Neison has most ably shown in the recent

    edition of his extremely valuable work , " Vital Statistics , _" the practice of Life Insurance is extendingand it seems likely that an

    in-, termediate class of companies will be called into existence , holding a position between that of the great corporate bodies established in

    the last , and early in the present century , and the humble Friendly Societies with which the working classes are familiar . This seems

    to me probable—as having established a Friendly Society in my own district , I have considerable acquaintance with the subject , and

    have for friends some of our ablest statists . " " Indeedin that caseyou better understand my meaning . It

    , , also occurs to me , that were the insurance made upon life , but payments regulated by amount of literary work , the scheme might

    embrace , —and I am . still , restricting my remarks to women only , —that large mass of contributors to the Periodical Press , whose number

    and assisting aid to the great work of education , is one of the most remarkable features of the time . If , as science shows us , the laws

    of advance tend to the development of the heterogeneous from , the homogeneous , may not the some rule affectin some measure , points

    , connected with the human mind ? In such case we should obtain a new view of the value of dispersive effects and dispersive agents ,

    the last of whom may be said to serve others rather than themselves . "

    256 A Woman's Pen.

    256 a woman _' s pen .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1858, page 256, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061858/page/40/