nd as the State commands marriage, and as the woman
contracts marriage as an obligation to the State, the State is
bound by every sacred obligation of justice to render the
contract an equal one. And here comes up again the barbaric
element--the predominance of physical force. "Shall this softer,
gentler, more fragile creature be the equal of the ruder, stouter
man?" "Yes," says your Christianity, "She is a divine
institution, as you are; she desires the same culture, the same
respect, the same authority." "No," says your barbarism, "I can
oppress her, and I will. We won't call it oppression, if you
please. We'll call it protection. I'll keep her money, and her
children, and her body, and her soul. I'll keep them all for her.
She can ask me for what she wants. I shall always know whether it
is best for her to have it or no."

Now, here it is true physical ascendency of the man which renders
the assumption of this position possible. Great as this power is,
he has taken pains to increase it by an immense array of aids and
appliances. He has kept the woman ignorant of all the
technologies of the world. Fatal renewal of the Hebrew myth, he
has eaten of the tree of knowledge, has kept the fruit for
himself. Society can not be governed without law and logic. The
use of these the man has monopolized, encouraging in the woman
the natural gifts and accomplishments which give him most
delight--dress and dance, and the sweet voice and graceful
manner, and, above all the ready acquiescence in his sovereign
pleasure. But let her ask him for the methods by which she may
analyze his actions and his intuitions, and he says, "No." No
college door shall open for her, no nursery of law, medicine or
theology. Philosophy, the science of sciences--which Dictrina
taught to Socrates, who teaches it to the world to-day--that
would give her the key to all the rest. She may get it, if she
can.

We have brought our theoretical woman up to the period of
marriage and maternity. Here the intensity of personal feeling
and interest monopolize her. Her nursery is full of pains and
pleasures, but its delights predominate, and though she will need
more than ever the help of outside culture and sympathy, she is
yet tied by her affections even more than by her duties to a