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Show SPRIGS OF THOUGHT. BT A. ROLLS. TIBBITS. The closest intimacy has always existed between religion and woman. Wherever a religion unfolded high, virtues as a fundamental funda-mental principle the character of woman was elevated, and so we find that a dying, crumbling crum-bling religion deteriorated woman. In all ages religion has been a profession of creed, ' an assumption of - right and wrong thinking and feeling, in the light of belief and faith in the traditions and con ceptions of the supernatural.. The history of religion has been the history of woman. Religion ha been to her the consolation and substitute for the suppressed activity of her mind, like an Undine seeking a soul. Woman Wo-man has ever sought eternal recognition of her individual being by the fullest and sin-ccrest sin-ccrest exercise of her religion. Man prohibited pro-hibited her from being an individual. He assigned as-signed to her only obligations, ' the duty of wife and motherhood, and the"aevotion to a religion, which he, with exquisite cruelty, fashioned for his own aggrandizement and her self-abasement. We find many religions which teach that woman has no soul, but that she may perhaps, by dint of her unfailing unfail-ing devotion to her duties, attain to a spark of t.hfl eternal life Religions of creeds are changeable moods and shift with the times; a religion of conscience con-science and instinct has gradually been evolved from the debris of superstitions supersti-tions and conceits of man. Tolerance and reason nave endowed religion witu justice and equality. It is the triumph of the nineteenth nine-teenth century that religion and women have been liberated from tue nightmares of the past. And woman today is a free, independent individual, on equality with mau, not by law, but by virtue of her endeavors, her ability. She is . no longer - the drudge or . the butterfly. She is a human being with the riglit of self assertion. asser-tion. That sne wishes to work out her own salvation is now no longer uuuatural. The only querry is: "How will she do it?" Sue is in a period of transition; her sex and her past, her new elevations, tier gills ana her ambitions produce great conflicts. Will she revolutionize the social order of the world? It is not our object to penetrate so - deep. Much might be said on the suoject, many predictions might be made, yet, to what avail? Tne solution of all problems is the doing of them, and woman will work out her own problems. Her aims and failures, her trials, will de-velope de-velope her into a reasonable being In a reasonable rea-sonable position. Her mission la the most intricate, and the duties of life bear down hardest on her. Nature has given her much intuition, sympathy, versatility. She learns so readily, but may forget too much. This is an age of woman's sway. Her gifts of mind and clever adaptation to all kinds of work are astounding. She must have dreamed wonderful lessons of wisdom in her sleep of ages to awaken so bright, so progressive, so ambitious. She is staking her fields of labor on the immense stretches of all human industries and thought, with hrr heart still in herjhome and her powers to love unchilled. Tes, the present woman is a bewildering creature, baffling all attempts to re-adjust her in her old threadbare existence; and so she remains the living, breathing incarnation incarna-tion of this modern spirit of progression. Her caprices and fancies are manifold. In many of them we see only the simple, foolish fool-ish woman, living the thoughtless life of the kitten, or the poor household drudge, existing merely, aud dropping without with-out care or pang the charms nature so kindly endowed her with. Both are unlovely types of womanhood; one assuming nothing of life's responsibility, seeing in her image the all of all; the other the dull slave to an overestimated over-estimated duty. The progressive woman moves between these extremes, responsive to duty with a mind eager to improve and embrace all opportunities, and with a sympathetic sym-pathetic hand' stretched out to the whole suffering world. Many little follies of woman are recorded they are mere bagatelle when compared with the heavy sins of man. Yet many of them are unworthy 6f her. Vanity and love of fashion are her excuse. Vanity is the be- i setting sin of many women, and like avarice, roots out many good plants. A vain woman cannot grow strong and true. Many women are still in an elementary t period of development, and accept without , discrimination the good and bad; the bad is generally more popular and we find bad J taste and bad habits more frequently. 1 Women like Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mrs. J. A. Logan and Mrs. Livermore ele- ( vate our social life and intercourse to a high standard by the power of noble thought, 1 grace of manner and the inborn refinement of lofty purpose. j i How trivial, nay, vulgar, is the vision of , a gathering of fashionable and intelligent , women on an afternoon playing high-five, sipping punch, and eager in anticipation of ' winning the prize, a common smelling bottle. bot-tle. How much vulgarity fashion endorses! What time, what noble aspirations, what sweetness of life it consumes! But woman will continue ' to grow even so; better, truer and stronger, for it is written on the wings of time that all things must take a higher flight. Salt Lake City, September 10. |