I presume
you will allow marriage and its duties to be the natural calling of a
woman?"
"Certainly."
"Then she ought not to complain of the loss of her liberty."
"Not of so much as is naturally involved in _marriage_, I allow."
"Then why draw back from your engagement to Gartley?"
"Because he requires me to turn away at once, and before any necessity
shows itself, from the exercise of a higher calling yet."
"I am not aware of any higher calling."
"I am. God has given me gifts to use for my fellows, and use them I must
till he, not man, stops me. That is my calling."
"But you know that of necessity a woman must give up many things when
she accepts the position of a wife, and possibly the duties of a
mother."
"The natural claims upon a wife or mother I would heartily acknowledge."
"Then of course to the duties of a wife belong the claims Society has
upon her as a wife."
"So far as I yet know what is meant in your circle by such claims, I
count them the merest usurpations: I will never subject myself to
such--never put myself in a position where I should be expected to obey
a code of laws not merely opposed to the work for which I was made, but
to all the laws of the relations to each other of human beings as human
beings.
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