on the moral cultivation of mankind: and if women are to remain in
their subordinate situation, it were greatly to be lamented that
the chivalrous standard should have passed away, for it is the only
one at all capable of mitigating the demoralising influences of
that position. But the changes in the general state of the species
rendered inevitable the substitution of a totally different ideal
of morality for the chivalrous one. Chivalry was the attempt to
infuse moral elements into a state of society in which everything
depended for good o~ evil on individual prowess, under the
softening influences of individual delicacy and generosity. In
modern societies, all things, even in the military department of
affairs, are decided, not by individual effort, but by the combined
operations of numbers; while the main occupation of society has
changed from fighting to business, from military to industrial
life. The exigencies of the new life are no more exclusive of the
virtues of generosity than those of the old, but it no longer
entirely depends on them. The main foundations of the moral life of
modern times must be justice and prudence; the respect of each for
the rights of every other, and the ability of each to take care of
himself. Chivalry left without legal check all forms of wrong which
reigned unpunished throughout society; it only encouraged a few to
do right in preference to wrong, by the direction it gave to the
instruments of praise and admiration. But the real dependence of
morality must always be upon its penal sanctions--its power to
deter from evil. The security of society cannot rest on merely
rendering honour to right, a motive so comparatively weak in all
but a few, and which on very many does not operate at all. Modern
society is able to repress wrong through all departments of life,
by a fit exertion of the superior strength which civilisation has
given it, and thus to render the existence of the weaker members of
society (no longer defenseless but protected by law) tolerable to
them, without reliance on the chivalrous feelings of those who are
in a position to tyrannise. The beauties and graces of the
chivalrous character are still what they were, but the rights of
the weak, and the general comfort of human life, now rest on a far
surer and steadier support; or rather, they do so in every relation
of life except the conjugal.  At present the moral influence of
women is no less real, but it is no longer of so marked and
definite a character: it has more nearly merged in the general
influence of public opinion. Both through the contagion of
sympathy, and through the desire of men to shine in the eyes of
women, their feelings have great effect in keeping alive what
remains of the chivalrous ideal--in fostering the sentiments and
continuing the traditions of spirit and generosity. In these points
of character, their standard is higher than that of men; in the
quality of justice, somewhat lower. As regards the relations of
private life it may be said generally, that their influence is, on
the whole, encouraging to the softer virtues, discouraging to the
sterner: though the statement must be taken with all the
modifications dependent on individual character. In the chief of
the greater trials to which virtue is subject in the concerns of
life--the conflict between interest and principle--the tendency of
women's influence- is of a very mixed character. When the principle
involved happens to be one of the very few which the course of
their religious or moral education has strongly impressed upon
themselves, they are potent auxiliaries to virtue: and their
husbands and sons are often prompted by them to acts of abnegation
which they never would have been capable of without that stimulus.
But, with the present education and position of women, the moral
principles which have been impressed on them cover but a
comparatively small part of the field of virtue, and are, moreover,
principally negative; forbidding particular acts, but having little
to do with the general direction of the thoughts and purposes. I am
afraid it must be said, that disinterestedness in the general
conduct of life--the devotion of the energies to purposes which
hold out no promise of private advantages to the family--is very
seldom encouraged or supported by women's influence. It is small
blame to them that they discourage objects of which they have not
learnt to see the advantage, and which withdraw their men from
them, and from the interests of the family. But the consequence is
that women's influence is often anything but favourable to public
virtue.  Women have, however, some share of influence in giving the
tone to public moralities since their sphere of action has been a
little widened, and since a considerable number of them have
occupied themselves practically in the promotion of objects
reaching beyond their own family and household. The influence of
women counts for a great deal in two of the most marked features of
modern European life--its aversion to war, and its addiction to
philanthropy. Excellent characteristics both; but unhappily, if the
influence of women is valuable in the encouragement it gives to
these feelings in general, in the particular applications the
direction it gives to them is at least as often mischievous as
useful. In the philanthropic department more particularly, the two
provinces chiefly cultivated by women are religious proselytism and
charity. Religious proselytism at home, is but another word for
embittering of religious animosities: abroad, it is usually a blind
running at an object, without either knowing or heeding the fatal
mischiefs--fatal to the religious object itself as well as to all
other desirable objects --which may be produced by the means
employed. As for charity, it is a matter in which the immediate
effect on the persons directly concerned, and the ultimate
consequence to the general good, are apt to be at complete war with
one another: while the education given to women--an education of
the sentiments rather than of the understanding--and the habit
inculcated by their whole life, of looking to immediate effects on
persons, and not to remote effects on classes of persons-- make
them both unable to see, and unwilling to admit, the ultimate evil
tendency of any form of charity or philanthropy which commends
itself to their sympathetic feelings. The great and continually
increasing mass of unenlightened and shortsighted benevolence,