these extremes bring her
into one common evil estate and both have one effect upon her.

"Have you not observed how the customs of ancient rude barbarism
corrupted the manners of woman and obliterated all those virtues and
excellencies for which she is especially designed by nature? It was
deemed most opprobrious for woman to learn to read and write, to say
nothing of other arts. It was thought indispensable to bind upon her
mouth the fetters of profound silence so that none ever heard her voice
but her own coarse husband, and the walls of the enclosure in which she
was kept imprisoned. She had no liberty of thought or action. Every
woman's thoughts were limited by the thoughts of her husband, and her
character was cast in the mould of his, whether that were good or bad.
And in addition to this, she always suffered from whatever of rudeness
there might be in her rough companion, who availed himself of his
superior brute physical strength as a weapon to overcome her moral
power. He scourged and cursed and despised her in every possible way,
when she was innocent of crime or error. As a result of this course,
her own self respect, and the feeling that she was abused and insulted
by her companion or partner, led her oftentimes to cast off all shame
and modesty, whenever a suitable opportunity presented itself. This grew
out of the fact that she no longer regarded herself as the companion of
her husband and the sharer of all his natural and moral rights, his joys
and sorrows, but she rather imagined herself his captive and bond slave.
She thus sank to the position of a slave-woman who is never allowed
peace or rest, and cares nothing for the training of her children or the
ordering of her house, since she looks upon herself as a stranger in a
home not her own, and we all know how difficult it is for a slave to
perform the duties of the free!

"On the other hand, have you not observed how the influence of modern
civilization is corrupting the nature of woman and making havoc with her
morals?

"There is nothing strange in this, for her delicate nature, when it had
escaped from the chains and imprisonment of the mildest barbarism, into
the open free arena of civilization, lost its reckoning, and wandered
hither and thither in bewilderment according to its own unrestrained
passions. Woman thus became like a feather, 'Borne on the tempest
wherever it blows, and driven about where no one knows.'

"Now since evil images and o