ANNUAL ORATION.

By J. S. WEATHERLY, M. D., OF MONTGOMERY.

It is a custom as well as a law of our Association, that one of its members shall deliver an oration at the commencement of our annual session. It is also proper and usual that the subject chosen for the oration should be one having some connection with the profession, at the same time having such general interest that the non-professional hearers who may honor us with their presence may be entertained and instructed. Having been elected at our last meeting to fill this difficult role, I have been at great loss in selecting a suitable subject, that would be alike interesting to doctors and to laymen. I have been more especially solicitous, when think. ing of some of the brilliant and learned productions that have been delivered before this body at its previous meetings; and knowing how sadly deficient I am in those graces of oratory which make even a common-place effusion acceptable to an audience.

In lieu of these attractions, I crave your attention and sympathies for my theme, which I know will strike a responsive cord in every manly heart before me, and I hope will not be wanting in interest to the ladies themselves.

66

In view of the great questions of the day, woman's rights, female suffrage and female doctors, I have ventured to choose Woman: Her Rights and Her Wrongs," for my subject. I do so because it is a living question, and it will probably be for this generation to solve some of the disputed points in regard to her position in relation to society and business.

The traditions of the past will avail us no longer, for woman has taken a "new departure," and is now clamoring for rights and privileges, which she says have been so long withheld from her by man's brutal force. I shall, in the remarks which I am about to make, endeavor to do her full justice, not shutting my eyes to the inevitable march of events, or closing my ears to the pleasing sound of progress which is echoing throughout the world.

If woman is degraded, as some seem to think, I wish the culprits who have been guilty of the gross injustice unearthed and brought to light and to punishment; and I feel sure that I shall be seconded in this desire by all right-thinking men, for I am confident that no man, who is a man, would wish to live in a land of degraded women. I believe no nation has ever arrived at a high and permanent point of moral and mental culture where the mothers of the men were bowed down under a yoke of tyranny. The mothers of Rome, when she was mistress of the world, are still celebrated, and are considered types for womanly culture and dignity.

In discussing this subject, I feel that I shall have to tread upon tender and debatable ground, for the women of this country are on the alert, and are foremost in their demands for place and power. But while all probably feel some interest in the matter, a few are rushing headlong on the road which they say is progress, but which some good people think is progress in the wrong direction. And what they claim as the light of truth is only an ignis fatuus, leading them on into a labyrinth of difficulties, from which it may take ages to extricate them.

It behooves the women of the United States to ponder wisely upon their condition. It is here in this free country, where everything runs riot, where even freedom itself is in danger, that this problem of woman's rights is likely to be solved.

"In the long vista of the years to roll,
Let me not see my country's honor fade;
Oh! let me see our land retain its soul!

Her pride in freedom, and not freedom's shade."

What will be the result to freedom and to woman herself of this agitation? Will she mount upward and onward in a grand career of usefulness to herself and to coming generations? Or will she sink, dragging man with her, into the dark ways of sin and immorality, delaying the progress toward perfection of the human race for years to come.

We hear a great deal of nonsense and twaddle, by both men and women, about the equality of the sexes. And, if the great law of nature had not been revolving in the same course for the last six thousand years, we might suppose that the order of creation was to be reversed by those wise men and women, and that we were to have all men in this world, or at least a merging of one sex into the other at the pleasure of these people. Fortunately, the All-wise Creator stamped indelibly and unchangeably the difference between the sexes. All the speeches and resolutions of the Woman's Rights Conventions cannot change this grand eternal law of nature. And whether we sprang first from a monkey or directly, as the Book of Books teaches us, from the great source of all created things, the

law is inexorable, and woman is, or ought to be, what God made her-the best part of creation.

"For why in this work did the creation rest,
But that eternal Providence thought you best
Of all his six days' labor? Beasts should do
Homage to man, but man should wait on you;
You are of a comelier sight, of daintier touch,
A tender flesh, and color bright, and such
As Parians see in marble; skin more fair,
More glorious head, and far more glorious hair,
Eyes full of grace and quickness; purer roses,
Blush in your cheeks; a milder white composes
Your stately fronts; your teeth more sweet

Breathes spice, and nectar drops at every kiss."

Speaking in a purely physical sense, man of course is the superior animal, and deprived of the elevating influence of good women, as we see during the first eighteen hundred years of his existence, a very bad animal. He was given a stalwart frame, large bones, and coarse muscles, that he might subdue the earth, and support himself by the sweat of his brow; yes, and support woman too. The lines of beauty were not observed so nicely in him, for it was intended that he should be a working animal. She was made beautiful that she might not only be pleasant to look upon, but also be an incentive to man to labor.

In looking back at the history of creation we must come to the conclusion that woman had a fair start with man. In fact, she seems to have been created superior to man in everything save physical strength. Her first introduction to us, beautiful and persuasive then as now, shows wherein she has control of man. Eager after knowledge she has made a step forward, and, like a good wife, she is not willing to partake of the pleasant things of this world without sharing with her husband. I do not blame Adam so much for yielding to temptation, coming, as it did, in such a beautiful shape, though I do blame him for trying to throw all the onus upon his wife. He should have come forward and protected her from temptation. He failed in his duty then, as a good many husbands do now, in not asserting his superior judgment and guarding her against the snares of the devil.

The deed, however, was done, and woman was degraded, and for eighteen hundred years no woman, save Eve, has left her impress upon the world's history. That she was corrupt we can have no doubt, for we read in sacred history that man became so wicked that he had to be destroyed from the face of the earth. We have reasons for thinking, however, that woman retained her charms even in her wickedness, for it is said that angels from heaven were attracted by her beauty.

"These are they then

Who leave the throne of God to take them wives
From out the race of Cain; the sons of heaven,
Who seek earth's daughters for their beauty."

After the flood we find that woman begins soon to regain her lost influence for good, and that events pregnant with the deepest interest to humanity are being shaped and controlled by her actions. She seems to have emerged from the sombre atmosphere of the past with her moral nature purified, and fitted to become the leader and guiding star in all things pertaining to goodness and spirituality. Her affections governed her then as now, and we find that the great law-giver, Moses, was preserved by her love and foresight. All through the history of the Jewish nation, be it ever remembered to their praise, the Jewish women preserved their faith, and though the men were constantly running off after false gods, the women were true to their faith and religion; and we see them exercising their influence for peace and harmony, as in the case of Abigail, who, when David would have destroyed her foolish husband, put her woman's wits to work, and after an interview with her he exclaims: "And David said unto Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me. And blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou, which has kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hands." Beautifully foreshadowing the mission of woman not to engage in the strife and turmoil of the world, but to promote peace and good feeling among men. I deem it unnecessary to waste time in discussing the point as to the superiority of the male over the female mind. There are few, I think, at the present time who are willing to contend that there is any great difference between the sexes, so far as mere intellect goes, provided both have received the same care and culture. The physical formation of woman and other natural causes, such as occupation, maternity, &c., sufficiently account for any apparent inequality. It is true that in the world's history few female mathematicians, artists or warriors have left their names engraved upon the tablets of fame; enough, however, are found to show their capability in all of these things. And when it comes to authorship, we find that they have written books which will last as long as the world lasts, showing as acute reasoning, as graceful diction, and as bold invention as the writings of men. But it is in the exercise of her influence for good where she looms up far above man; and in looking back through the long vista of time to the period when man first began to leave his record upon the imperishable pages of history to the present, "we find fair woman casting her mantle of refinement over his social relations, making him happier and wiser and better, according as she is appreciated." We also see that where each observes the sphere for which they were intended, that there also we find the most distinguished of both sexes.

Where an exception occurs to this general law, as in the case of Joan of Arc or Charlotte Corday, and a number of others that might be mentioned, they remind us more of brilliant meteors, bright and glorious if you please, but bodies that have left their own proper orbits, shooting athwart the sky, illuminating it for one

bright instant, and then the glory fades, and darkness closes around them.

"In the different departments of nature it is a universal principle that the object sought to be attained is in strict accordance with the quality of the materials she employs for her purpose; and in this respect men and women in the law of their adaptability, form no exception to this general rule. The same finger of infinite wisdom which paints the color of the rose, and guides the planets in their courses, has so formed us that we may be equal to consociation with angels while we perform our duties upon earth; the consummation of this depending largely on the attention we give to those cultivating influences with which Providence has surrounded us."

Man and woman both have their well-defined parts to perform, both having a common destiny, resembling somewhat two rivers seeking an outlet into the sea. They flow through different channels, but the aim of both is the same. Her course like the stream which flows through gentle meadows of grass and flowers; his the wild mountain torrent, dashing through gorges and leaping precipices, causing the wild roar of the cataract, but bearing everything before it by main force. For the work peculiarly appropriate to woman, she of course is far superior to man. Her work, however, does not tend toward massive strength either of body or mind, but rather to a gentle modelling of both.

"The mission of woman on earth! to give birth
To the mercy of heaven descending on earth.
The mission of woman! permitted to bruise
The head of the serpent, and sweetly infuse,

Through the sorrow and sin of earth's registered curse,
The blessing which mitigates all; born to nurse,
And to soothe, and to solace, to help and to heal
The sick world that leans on her."

Purely mental culture in her, yielding to the affections, which, being more stimulated, predominate. Where these go hand in hand, both the affections and mind receiving the best culture, we find the highest type of womanhood-I might say the highest type of humanity. Women like the mother of the Gracchi, equal to the best of the Romans in birth, education and wisdom, yet could boast of her children as her jewels, and whom, Plutarch tells us, brought her children up with so much care that, though they were of the noblest family, and had the happiest genius of any of the Roman youth, yet the education given them by their mother was allowed to have contributed more to their perfections than nature.

The history of the world proves that woman is capable of doing almost everything well; but the question is not what she can be forced or may choose to do under some circumstances, but it is, what is best and proper for her to do? Individually, I feel very much upon the subject of what woman ought to do as the spicy Gail Hamilton, who, in a recent work, says in regard to the discus