otal annihilation of the
prejudices which have established between the sexes an inequality of
right, _fatal even to the party which it favors_. In vain might we
seek for motives to justify the principle, in difference of physical
organization, of intellect, or of moral sensibility. It had at first
no other origin but abuse of strength, _and all the attempts which have
since been made to support it_ are idle sophisms."--"Progress of the
Human Mind," _Condorcet_.

5. Notwithstanding the work of such men as the Encyclopedists of France
and other liberal thinkers for the proper recognition of women, the
Church had held her grip so tight that upon the passage of the bill,
as late as 1848, giving to married women the right to own their own
property, the most doleful prophesies went up as to the just retribution
that would fall upon women for their wicked insubordination, and upon
the men who had defied divine commands so far as to pass such a law. A
recent writer tells us that Wm. A. Stokes, in talking to a lady whom he
blamed for its passage, said: "We hold you responsible for that law,
and I tell you now you will live to rue the day when you opened such a
Pandora's box in your native State, and cast such an apple of discord
into every family of the State."

And the sermons that were preached against it--the prophecies of deacon
and preacher--were so numerous, so denunciatory, and so violent that
they form a queer and interesting chapter in the history of the attitude
of the Church toward women, and illustrate, in our own time, how
persistent it has been in its efforts to prevent woman from sharing in
the benefits of the higher civilization of the nineteenth century.

But fortunately for women, Infidels are more numerous than they ever
were before, and the power of the Church is dying of dry rot, or as Col.
Ingersoll wittily says, of the combined influence of softening of the
brain and ossification of the heart.

Appendix O.

"St. Gregory the Great describes the virtue of a priest, _who through
motives of piety had discarded his wife_... Their wives, in _immense
numbers_, were driven forth with hatred and with scorn... Pope Urban II.
_gave license_ to the nobles _to reduce to slavery the wives_ of priests
who refused to abandon them."--Lecky.

Appendix P.

1. "Hallam denies that respect for women is due to Christianity.
"--Buckle.

2. "In England, wives are still occasionally led to the market by
a hal