od.

To whom, then, but to you, my little son, can I dedicate my
book? You came to me when I was still seeking out a way in the
futility of Individual ends; you reconciled my warring motives
and desires; you brought me a new guiding principle. You taught
me that the Individual Life is but as a bubble or cluster of
foam on the great tide of humanity. I knew that the redemption
of Woman rests in the growing knowledge and consciousness of her
responsibility to the race.

"The social revolution which is impending in Europe is chiefly
concerned with the future of the workers and the women. It is
for this that I hope and wait, and for this I will work with all
my powers."--IBSEN.

PREFACE

It is very difficult to write a preface to a work which is expressly
intended as a revelation of the faith of the writer. The successive
stages of thought and emotion that have been passed through are still
too near, and one feels too deeply. I have made several futile
attempts to concentrate into a short note the Truths about Woman that
I have tried to convey in my book. I find it impossible to do this.
The explanation of one's own book would really require the writing of
another book, as Mr. Bernard Shaw has proved to us in his delightful
prefaces. But to do this one must be freed altogether from the limits
of length and time. The fragments of what I wish to say would be of no
service to any one.

I then tried to place myself, as it were, outside the book, and to
look at it as a stranger might. But the difficulties here were even
greater. I grew so interested in criticising my own opinions that my
notes soon outran the possibilities of a preface. In this spirit of
genuine discrimination, I became aware how easy it would be for any
one who does not share my faith to find apparent contradictions of
statement and errors in thought--much that is feeble here, extravagant
there; to notice some salient fault and to take it as decisive of the
writer's incompetence. I am tempted to point these out myself to guide
and protect the reader.

Now that my book is done I feel that I have touched only the veriest
fringe of a vast subject. But one thing I may say, I have tried to
express the truth as I have come to see it. The conception I have of
Woman is not new; it is very old. And for that reason it will be
rejected by many women to-day. At present the inspiration towards
freedom in