Feminism / by Correa Moylan Walsh.

  • Correa Moylan Walsh
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Feminism / by Correa Moylan Walsh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of pollen is the embryo developed from an ovum fertilised by a spermatozoon.°* That quasi-scientific doctrine, originating near the beginning of civilisation, and so long prevalent — the new view at the time we are speaking of —represents the swing of the pendulum from the one side of the truth to the other, and in place of the mother being considered the creator of the child without any father, the father became, in the common opinion, the child’s creator, with the mother’s help, but with her acting a very indifferent part. Then the father’s action was likened also to that of rain, which the earth absorbs: he indeed acts, he covers, as the sky covers and fertilises the earth; and as woman had previously been as- similated to the earth, and her internal powers, spontaneous and uncontrolled, to the hidden powers under the earth — to goddesses of darkness,—so now man was assimilated to meteorological phenomena, with powers aerial and spiritual, volitionally active and regulated by intelligence, and he, the first star-gazer, became the worshipper of the gods of light, with whom he claimed kin- ship. In fact, a totally new mythology now came into existence, and Zeus, with his dependent sister-wife, succeeded the nearly equal Kronos and Rhea, and Wodin supplanted Freya or Frau Gude, and the more prominent gods now were males, whereas female goddesses had previously been more important.®? a few of whom continued in honour (such as Vesta, or the fire on the hearth), or were superseded by new minor goddesses of the air or the sea (such as Venus). Men now, at least the eminent men in every country, came to be looked up to, themselves, as gods, especially when dead, and their manes had to be appeased by wor- ship and nourished by offerings, their continued existence depend- ing thereon; and the worship and offerings could be rendered only by sons and their sons, brought up and trained thereto, at the family tomb on festal occasions, and on ordinary occasions at the family hearth. Hence every man of such station needed, for the continuance of his happiness after death, the perpetuation of his own line on earth; and, to begin with, as also for his sup- port in old age, he needed a recognisable son, who could only be a legitimate son, from a legitimate and recognised and home-kept wife. Such a son, too, would perpetuate his name,— and in early 51 Still, however, though the mother contributes equally with the father to the formation of the embryo, she is otherwise but its nurse before as after giving birth; for it develops itself, forming for instance its own blood, which comes to it no more from its mother than from its father. What the mother does is to provide it housing and warmth, and to bring to it nourishment, which it absorbs and as- similates. 52 Cf. Pearson, Ethic of Freethought, 393.
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