Universalist Church, Geneva, New York

[Mrs. Gilman considers that man has three important duties to perform: First, to himself; second, to his God, and third, to his fellow beings.]

In regard to man’s duty to himself, his first duty is to his body. This applies both to man and woman. A strong well-developed body is the first requisite to enable a man to do his duty. The more important duty of the individual, however, is that which he owes to his own brain. In this respect we differ from other animals. The beasts of the field have the power of maintenance and reproduction. We alone have the power of progress. It is the duty of each person to examine the contents of his mind, clean out the rubbish that his progenitors have planted there, and prepare it for the new and the best that our advanced thought and civilization have to offer.

I will consider next our duty to God. This something that we call God pervades the entire world. It is in animate and inanimate nature, and is implanted in man. The purpose of God in the world is for a more and more complete expression of Himself. We are a factor in God’s plan, or a pawn, in God’s great game. Each of us has more God in him or her than he or she can use. It is our duty to express Him to the best of our ability. 

Of all our duties, that which we owe to the race is paramount. I do not desire to infer that we are to neglect our duty to our home and our families, which we usually consider man’s first duty, but that it is subordinate to the duty we owe our fellow beings and to or nation. We see this in the highest development, in the lowest forms of social institutions. Take our ideas of war, for instance. Man will leave his home, wife and children to die for his country. It is our duty to appreciate the unity of the race and our duty to the whole of it. We should do whatever we are best fitted to do for the betterment of mankind. Love is service for one another. We must realize that the world is not a place to go out into simply to get money for the family, but that it is a place to work for the entire race.

Source: “Charlotte Perkins Speaks on Duties to Humanity, Miller NAWSA Suffrage Scrapbooks, 1897 to 1911, Scrapbook 3, National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, Library of Congress, Washington DC