endment in the proposed new constitution, but the
Committee on Suffrage of the Constitutional Convention refused even to
submit the proposed amendment to a vote of the people, though half a
million of our most intelligent and respectable citizens had signed the
petition requesting them to do so. Joseph H. Choate and Elihu Root did
their uttermost to defeat the amendment, and succeeded.

I spent the summer of 1894 with my son Gerrit, in his home at Thomaston,
Long Island. Balzac's novels, and the "Life of Thomas Paine" by Moncure
D. Conway, with the monthly magazines and daily papers, were my mental
pabulum. My daughter, Mrs. Stanton Lawrence, returned from England in
September, 1894, having had a pleasant visit with her sister in
Basingstoke. In December Miss Anthony came, and we wrote the woman
suffrage article for the new edition of Johnson's Cyclopedia.

On March 3, 1895, Lady Somerset and Miss Frances Willard, on the eve of
their departure for England, called to see me. We discussed my project
of a "Woman's Bible." They consented to join a revising committee, but
before the committee was organized they withdrew their names, fearing
the work would be too radical. I especially desired to have the opinions
of women from all sects, but those belonging to the orthodox churches
declined to join the committee or express their views. Perhaps they
feared their faith might be disturbed by the strong light of
investigation. Some half dozen members of the Revising Committee began
with me to write "Comments on the Pentateuch."

The chief thought revolving in my mind during the years of 1894 and 1895
had been "The Woman's Bible." In talking with friends I began to feel
that I might realize my long-cherished plan. Accordingly, I began to
read the commentators on the Bible and was surprised to see how little
they had to say about the greatest factor in civilization, the mother of
the race, and that little by no means complimentary. The more I read,
the more keenly I felt the importance of convincing women that the
Hebrew mythology had no special claim to a higher origin than that of
the Greeks, being far less attractive in style and less refined in
sentiment. Its objectionable features would long ago have been apparent
had they not been glossed over with a faith in their divine inspiration.
For several months I devoted all my time to Biblical criticism and
ecclesiastical history, and found no explanation for the degraded status
o