I have seldom felt so proud of being a representative of the people as now, when it gives me an opportunity to advocate a cause which cannot be represented or defended in this chamber by those directly and particularly affected by it, owing to the leven of prejudice that the beliefs and ideas of the past have left in the mind of modern man. The cause of female suffrage is one sure to strike a sympathetic chord in every unprejudiced man, because it represents the cause of a set of people who, deprived of the means to defend themselves, are compelled to throw themselves upon the mercy of another set of people.

But it is not on this account alone that this cause has my sympathy and appeals to me. It also has the irresistible attraction of truth and justice, which no open and liberal mind can deny. If our action as legislators must be inspired by the eternal sources of right, if the laws passed here must comply with the divine precept to give everybody his due, then we cannot deny women the right to vote, because to do so would be to prove false all the precepts and achievements of democracy and liberty which have made this century what may be properly called the century of vindication.

Female suffrage is a reform demanded by the social conditions of our times, by the high culture of woman, and by the aspiration of all classes of society to organize and work for the interests they have in common. We cannot detain the celestial bodies in their course; neither can we check any of those moral movements that gravitate with irresistible force towards their center of attraction: Justice. The moral world is governed by the same laws as the physical world, and all the power of man being impotent to suppress a single molecule of the spaces required for the gravitation of the universe, it is still less able to prevent the generation of the ideas that take shape in the mind and strive to attain to fruition in the field of life and reality.

What is the passage primarily concerned with?

A. Pointing out fallacies in the argument of one particular group
B. Providing reasons in support of an assertion
C. Discussing how two groups of people have been unjustly treated in the past
D. Highlight an analogy between celestial bodies and a group of people
E. State the prerequisites of a liberal mind



Which of the following does the passage imply could be a characteristic of a liberal mind?

A. It does not favor the rights of men over those of women.
B. It offers tacit support to the forces of democracy.
C. It provides every human being the opportunity to defend itself.
D. It supports what is true and just.
E. It cannot change the course of celestial bodies.



Why does the author mention 'celestial bodies' in the passage?

A. To state how the cause of legalizing women suffrage was as difficult as detaining the course of celestial bodies
B. To point out a similarity between celestial bodies and moral movements
C. To state that celestial bodies are also governed by the laws of justice
D. To conclude that celestial bodies have a centre of attraction that they eventually gravitate towards
E. To assert that man has no control over the movement of the celestial bodies