For so long missionaries were also social welfare movements, rudimentary as they were; Fanny is evidence that change occurs slowly. In another hundred years, who is going to point to us for our ignorance and arrogance for something now invisible to us, while lauding another aspect of our lives entirely?

After having read so many collections of letters, I will venture a generalization: that contemplating change was scary. Many women did not want the burden of government positions, for example, because the cost was so very high. "If we change this thing we don't like, that seems so simple, what if it leads to . . . that?" is a theme I see over and over.