Book excerpt: Excerpt from Notable Women in History: The Lives of Women Who in All Ages, All Lands, and in All Womanly Occupations Have Won Fame and Put Their Imprint on the World's History Out of the mouldering records of bygone centuries any competent student can gather ample evidence of the capability of woman to fill any place to which fate may summon her. Not that every woman can fill any place, more than every man could. But given the need and the individual will appear. Driven from point to point by the irresistible logic of the facts and by the development of a more intelligent public sentiment, the stubborn conservatives of to-day, who would deny to woman a share equal to that of man in the government of her nation, make their final forlorn stand on the plea that because women cannot fight the battles of their country with sword and gun they should have no share in guiding its political destinies. But men in plenty forbear to rush into the carnage of battle without being thereby debarred the pleasures of politics. The soldier and the statesman are types distinct. And even among soldiers women have figured gloriously. Isabella of Castile, Catherine II of Russia, were as truly generals as Wellington or Grant. Like the English and the American leader, they rode with their troops, shared the perils of battle and the discomforts of the bivouac, stimulating their soldiers by their presence, planning their campaigns and receiving the submission of their enemies. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.