to have, and that a real,
hearty, genuine respect for women does not exist. In every man's heart
there lurks a mild contempt for us, because of our ignorance of
business, politics, and practical matters generally outside of the
nursery and the milliner's shop. The best of you look upon us and our
doings as grown people look at pretty children and their plays,--with a
good-natured feeling of superiority, and a smile half pleasure and half
pity. The truth is, that men have always despised us, from the earliest
times. At first, we were mere slaves and drudges; then, playthings, if
handsome and lively,--something to be brought on with the wine at a
feast. Chivalry, which in newspaper rhetoric means devotion to women and
respect, knew little of either, when it was alive and vigorous. The
_droits de bottage et de cuissage_ alone are enough to prove that. In
our times, indeed, the savage view of woman as a slave has been softened
by civilization into housekeeper and nurse; but it still lingers in
every man's feelings. Woman's mission in his eyes is simply babies; to
which is superadded the duty of making the father comfortable. But the
high prices of living are teaching people who have never heard of
Malthus or of Mill the necessity of celibacy; and women must find
something else to do than to rock a cradle.

_Diogenes._ Yes, unlimited issues on an insufficient capital lead to
ruin. That ivy clinging to the oak view of the woman question still
finds a place in print; but in practice I think the oaks are getting
rather tired of it They find that the graceful wreaths of the ivy draw
heavily upon their substance, and they would prefer a more
self-sustaining simile.

_Hipparchia._ So much the better. I desire to see females support
themselves.

_Aristippus._ Don't say female again, Hipparchia! I hate the word used
in that sense, as much as Swift hated the word _bowels_. It is a term of
natural history. A mare is a female; so is a cow, and so is a female
dog. It would be curious to analyze the feeling that led euphuistic
donkeys to choose it as a compromise word between lady and woman.

_Hipparchia._ They must have been male donkeys. All the terms of
reproach you apply to us when you forget your chivalry manners, such as
_witch_, _shrew_, _termagant_, _slut_, and so on, were all originally
made by men for men,--at least so Archdeacon Trench tells us. You have
gradually shuffled them off upon us; and worse yet, when you wish to