It is hopeless."
The men were silent, for the blue eyes of the lady doctor were dim.
Recovering herself she looked up with a smile, half sad, half
humorous, "And I am in a whining heap, too; but what phase of
Indian life are you particularly interested in, sir?"
"Mr. Pagett intends to study the political aspect of things and the
possibility of bestowing electoral institutions on the people."
"Wouldn't it be as much to the purpose to bestow point-lace collars
on them? They need many things more urgently than votes. Why
it's like giving a bread-pill for a broken leg."
"Er-I don't quite follow," said Pagett, uneasily.
"Well, what's the matter with this country is not in the least
political, but an all round entanglement of physical, social, and
moral evils and corruptions, all more or less due to the unnatural
treatment of women. You can't gather figs from thistles, and so
long as the system of infant marriage, the prohibition of the
remarriage of widows, the lifelong imprisonment of wives and
mothers in a worse than penal confinement, and the withholding
from them of any kind of education or treatment as rational beings
continues, the country can't advance a step. Half of it is morally
dead, and worse than dead, and that's just the half from which we
have a right to look for the best impulses. It's right here where
the trouble is, and not in any political considerations whatsoever.
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