ism.

Seventeenth century philosophy made woman nothing. Eighteenth century
philosophy, springing from the English utilitarians, Hobbes, Locke, and
Hume, made woman a mere adjunct, a tool of man. Above all things else,
an Englishman loves his home. A good wife makes a man more comfortable
in his home than a bad one. "Therefore," said eighteenth century
philosophy, "'tis the part of worldly prudence to train women toward
virtue." This thought is the substance of Locke's Treatise on Education,
so far as it concerns women. "A husband of high social standing may be
the reward of persistent virtue," added Samuel Richardson, the man
through whom Locke's philosophy became potent over women of all ranks in
all civilized countries.

For more than half a century Locke's philosophy, filtered through
Richardson's novels, colored feminine ideals almost as deeply on the
continent as in the author's own country. Rousseau was a third link in
the chain a very strong, a mighty link.

Richardson's first novel was Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded. Clarissa
Harlowe and Sir Charles Grandison soon followed. Each of these books,
translated into German, passed through many editions. French renderings
of Richardson's novels also flooded German book stores. This author's
books struck both new and old chords in the heart of German womanhood.
They dealt with heroines who moved in the humbler walks of life. Before
Richardson and Rousseau wrote, the memoirs of highborn dames may be
searched in vain for a single expression of sisterly feeling toward
women in a lower rank of society than their own. Compassion and
almsgiving were not lacking, but the "put yourself in her place" feeling
seems never previously to have been awakened. Richardson emphasized
chastity a virtue which the early eighteenth century world most sadly
lacked. He made the hearthstone once more an altar.

Out of the sentimentalism of the Locke-Richardson-Rousseau school was
evolved a type of womanhood which, during the second half of the
eighteenth century, made the world purer and better.

CHAPTER X

THROUGH STORM AND STRESS TO CLASSICISM AND HUMANISM

About the middle of the eighteenth century, after long and weary years
of unfruitful struggle, disappointment and desolation, there begins
faintly to glimmer, and then rapidly to shine in broad illumination, a
stupendous cultural movement the impelling force of which was the
humanizing thought which sprang from the fertile bra