ation, was rudely checked by an issue which sundered the
respective classes to the nethermost poles. It then became but a
question of which section of the nation should administer its affairs
and direct its destiny. When the two opposing camps of aristocracy
and democracy met in conflict, King Charles was led to the gibbet, not
because the feeling of the people was so especially bitter against him
personally, as that he was the impersonation of an aristocracy which
had become so intrenched in power, that, regardless of its acts, it
claimed divine right to rule.

The female sex, as a whole, was not held in high esteem by the
Puritans, however dear to them may have been the women of their own
households. By the gayety and licentiousness of the brilliant era of
Elizabeth, women had forfeited the esteem of these stern censors of
public virtue, and were held up as snares in the way of the righteous
and as emissaries of Satan. It would be unjust to the sound judgment
of those earnest men of powerful thought and tested standards even
to suggest that they did not make a distinction between woman in
disgrace--as they regarded the women in representative life about
them--and woman in her normal and helpful relationship to society,
as illustrated in the Biblical types of exalted womanhood. It was but
natural that, at a time when the social sin was the canker of society,
woman should have been looked upon in the light of the temptress in
Eden. It is only with such qualification that the characterization
of a writer on the period of the Commonwealth, whose description is
generally accurate, can be accepted: "Under the Commonwealth, society
assumed a new and stern aspect. Women were in disgrace; it was
everywhere declared from the pulpit that woman caused man's expulsion
from Paradise, and ought to be shunned by Christians as one of the
greatest temptations of Satan. 'Man,' said they, 'is conceived in sin
and brought forth in iniquity; it was his complacency to woman that
caused his first debasement; let man not therefore glory in his shame;
let him not worship the fountain of his corruption.' Learning and
accomplishments were alike discouraged, and women confined to a
knowledge of cooking, family medicines, and the unintelligible
theological discussions of the day."

The high tension which had been maintained during the preceding reign
was followed during those of James I. and Charles I. by a mental
inertia; and the intellectual l