vorced woman. The illegitimate child has, in such cases, all the
rights of children born in wedlock. We may await with curiosity to see
whether the provisions of this bill, so hostile to woman, will acquire
the force of a civil code of law in Germany. But retrogression is the
key-note in our legislation.

Between the years of 1830-1880, there were 8,563 cases of infanticide
before the French court of assizes, the figures rising from 471 in 1831,
to 980 in 1880. During the same period, 1,032 cases of abortion were
tried, 41 in 1831, and in 1880 over 100. Of course, only a small part of
the abortions came to the knowledge of the criminal court; as a rule,
only when followed by serious illness or death. In the cases of
infanticide, the country population contributed 75 per cent., in the
cases of abortion the cities 65 per cent. In the city, the women have
more means at command to prevent normal birth; hence, the many cases of
abortion and the small number of infanticides. It is the reverse in the
country.

Such is the composition of the picture presented by modern society in
respect to its most intimate relations. The picture differs wide from
that that poets and poetically doused phantasists love to paint it. Our
picture, however, has this advantage,--it is true. And yet the picture
still calls for several strokes of the brush to bring out its character
in full.

In general, there can be no difference of opinion touching the present
and average mental inferiority of the female sex to the male. True
enough, Balzac, by no means a woman-lover, claims: "The woman, who has
received a male education, possesses in fact the most brilliant and
fruitful qualities for the building of her own happiness and that of her
husband;" and Goethe, who knew well both the men and women of his times,
expresses himself in Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (confessions of a
pure soul): "Learned women were ridiculed, and also the educated ones
were disliked, probably because it was considered impolite to put so
many ignorant men to shame." We agree with both. Nevertheless, the fact
is no wise altered that, in general, women stand intellectually behind
the men. This difference is compulsory, because _woman is that which
man, as her master, has made her_. The education of woman, more so than
that of the working class, has been neglected since time immemorial; nor
are latter-day improvements adequate. We live in days when the
aspiration after excha