THE CHINESE WOMAN.
Matthew Arnold, speaking of the argument taken from the Bible which was used in the House of Commons to support the Bill for enabling a man to marry his decased wife's sister, said: "Who will believe when he really considers the matter, that when the feminine nature, the feminine ideal and our relations with them are brought into question, the delicate and apprehensive genius of the Indo-European race, the race which invented the Muses, and Chivalry, and the Madonna, is to find its last word on this question in the instiution of a Semitic people whose wisest King had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines?"
The two words I want for my purpose here from the above long quotation are the words "feminine ideal." Now what is the Chinese feminine ideal? What is the Chinese people's ideal of the feminine nature and their relations to that ideal? But before going further, let me, with all deference to Matthew Arnold, and respect for his Indo-European race, say here that the feminine ideal of the Semitic race, of the old Hebrew people is not such a horrid one as Matthew Arnold would have us infer from the fact that their wisest King had a multitude of wives and concubines. For here is the feminine ideal of the old Hebrew people, as we find it in their literature: "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely
