of
woman's capacities and a lessening of the demands for her emancipation.

Aristotle is less generous than Plato in his concessions to woman. "The
male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; the one rules, the
other is ruled; this principle of necessity is extended to all mankind."
Thus he asserts woman's inferiority to man and he insists upon her
silent and passive obedience. The difference of functions and duties he
bases upon difference of nature. "The temperance and courage of a man
are other than those of a woman. For a man who is courageous only as a
woman is will seem timid, and a woman will seem impudent if she has
merely the reserve and modesty of an honest man. Thus, in a family, a
woman's duties differ from a man's--his it is to acquire, hers to
preserve." Each woman, however, has her part in the State, and should be
prepared for it. "In women the qualities of the body are beauty and
height; those of the soul are temperance and love of work, without
baseness. An individual and a State should desire each of these
qualities in both men and women." Yet, while asserting woman's
inferiority, Aristotle recognizes the sanctity of marriage and of the
family, and preaches to men faithfulness and regard and appreciation in
their attitude toward women. In his _Ethics_ he dwells with delicacy on
the affectionate regard husband and wife should each have for the other.
They should bear with and encourage each other in all the events of
life. And while he insists upon the limitations of woman's intelligence
and reasoning powers, he yet recognizes her superiority to man in
qualities of the heart; and when he wishes to give an example of
disinterested and ideal affection, it is woman who serves as his model.
On the whole, Aristotle draws a more pleasing picture of woman's
character and position than Plato, in spite of the greater equality
granted by the latter. Plato's philosophy was primarily the product of
imagination, Aristotle's of experience; Plato was essentially
theoretical, Aristotle practical. Hence the teachings of the Stagirite
were doubtless based on examples of conjugal unity and felicity which he
saw about him, and he extended to the Athenian people in general the
views of marital relations that prevailed in his own circle.

Xenophon's treatise on _Domestic Economy_ was probably intended to be a
contribution to the current discussion of the Woman Question; in it he
sought to prove the falsity of the