large properties and the
successions to vast estates. The infidelity of the husband inflicts
no spurious children on his wife. If a woman has no other married
privilege, she has that of knowing her own children."

"That is not the whole of the question. A bad man may not be able to
impose spurious children on his wife; but that does not prevent him
from imposing them on his friend and neighbor."

"That is a case between man and man, not between a man and his wife;
and we have nothing to do with it. I am only trying to convince you
that Harry is not as bad as you think he is."

"And I say that it is wrong to expect purity from wives and not also
from their husbands."

"My dear Yanna, we shall have to call justice to our aid. There are
certain virtues that belong peculiarly to men, and others which belong
peculiarly to women. For instance, bravery is to a man all that
chastity is to a woman. The want of courage that disgraces a man is no
slur to a woman. If a ship is going to pieces, men postpone their own
deliverance until all the women have been saved; and if they did not,
they would be infamous forever in the eyes of their fellow men. In the
hour of death or danger, women faint and cry out, and it is no shame
to them, it is only womanly, and they are loved the more for it; but
if men were to so far forget themselves, what a measure of contempt
would be justly given them! Yet men do not complain of this apparent
unfairness; they know that being men, they must suffer as men, and not
claim the privilege of a woman's immunity."

"One sin cannot excuse another, Cousin Alida."

"It is not only one, there are many other points, which are just as
remarkable; for instance, there is the dishonor of being found out
cheating at cards. Men laugh at the fault in women; they call them
'pretty little frauds,' and go on with the game. But if a man is
caught in the same act, he is quickly sent to Coventry, or to Halifax,
or to some other shameful limbo."

"Women are proverbially weak, and men assume to be their superiors in
strength of character. They ought to prove it."

"Come, come, Mrs. Filmer! If a woman's weakness is an excuse, then the
vigor, the strength, and the temptations of men are a much larger one.
Their very excess of life makes them powerful to _do_, and impotent to
resist. It is clearly unreasonable to expect men to be both as they
are and as they are not. Simple justice demands that we should be more
tolerant