t regarded as quite
out of date makes them interesting.

Herr Riehl's theory, to put it in a nutshell, is that the family is
all-important, and the individual, if she is a woman, is of no
importance at all. He does not object to her being yoked to a plough,
because then she is working for the family, but he would forbid her,
if he could, to enter any profession that would make her independent
of the family. She is not to practise any art, and if she "commences
author" it is a sure sign that she is ugly, soured, and bitter. In any
country where they are allowed to rule, and even in any country where
they distinguish themselves in art and literature, civilisation as
well as statecraft must be at a standstill. Queen Elizabeth and Maria
Theresa were evidently awkward people for a man laying down this
theory to encounter, so he goes out of his way to say that they were
not women at all, but men in women's clothes. Moreover, he has no
doubt that the Salic law must ultimately prevail everywhere.

A woman has no independent existence: he says she is taught from
childhood to be subordinate to others; she cannot go out by herself
with propriety; she is not a complete creature till she finds a mate.
The unlucky women who never find one (more than 400,000 in Germany)
are not to make any kind of career for themselves, either humble or
glorious. Each one is to search carefully for relatives who will give
her a corner in their house, and allow her to work for them. If no one
wants her she may live with other women and bring up poor children. He
would allow women some education. Far be it from him to think that
women are to remain in compulsory ignorance. But their education is to
be "womanly," and carried on in the family. Women teachers in public
schools he considered a danger to the State, and he would send all
girls till they reach their twelfth or fourteenth year to the
elementary schools, where they would be taught by men and associate
with bare-footed children. Woman, in short, is to learn how to be
woman at home, and how not to be superwoman in school. She may even
have some instruction in art and science, but only a limited
instruction that will not encroach on her duty to the family.

The fate of lonely single women is much on Herr Riehl's mind. What are
we to do with them? he asks despairingly. "What is to become of the
army of innocent creatures, without means, without a craft, doomed to
an aimless, disappointed life. Sh