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Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 1860-1935

"Herland"

Perhaps
you would like to see our outline?"
We were eager to see it, and deeply impressed. To us, at first,
these women, unavoidably ignorant of what to us was the basic
commonplace of knowledge, had seemed on the plane of children,
or of savages. What we had been forced to admit, with growing
acquaintance, was that they were ignorant as Plato and Aristotle
were, but with a highly developed mentality quite comparable
to that of Ancient Greece.
Far be it from me to lumber these pages with an account of
what we so imperfectly strove to teach them. The memorable fact
is what they taught us, or some faint glimpse of it. And at
present, our major interest was not at all in the subject matter of
our talk, but in the audience.
Girls--hundreds of them--eager, bright-eyed, attentive
young faces; crowding questions, and, I regret to say, an
increasing inability on our part to answer them effectively.
Our special guides, who were on the platform with us, and
sometimes aided in clarifying a question or, oftener, an answer,
noticed this effect, and closed the formal lecture part of the
evening rather shortly.


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