n commonplace, explanation of the rise
of mother-descent and mother-right in place of the spiritual
hypothesis of Bachofen.

[19] _The History of Human Marriage_, p. 105.

It will be well, however, to examine further Bachofen's own theory. It
is his opinion that the first Amazonian revolt and period of women's
rule was followed by a second movement--

"Woman took arms against her foe [_i. e._ man], and was gradually
transformed into an Amazon. _As a rival to the man the Amazon became
hostile to him, and began to withdraw from marriage and from
motherhood. This set limits to the rule of women, and provoked the
punishment of heaven and men._"[20]

[20] _Das Mutterrecht_, p. 85.

There is a splendid imaginative appeal in this remarkable passage.
Again the italics are mine. It is, of course, impossible to accept
this statement, as Bachofen does, as an historical account of what
happened through the agency of women at the time of which he is
treating. Yet, we can find a suggestion of truth that is eternal. Is
there not here a kind of prophetic foretelling of every struggle
towards readjustment in the relationships of the two sexes, through
all the periods of civilisation, from the beginning until now? You
will see what I mean. The essential fact for woman--and also for
man--is the sense of community with the race. Neither sex can keep a
position apart from parenthood. Just in so far as the mother and the
father attain to consciousness and responsibility in their relations
to the race do they reach development and power. Bachofen, as a poet,
understood this; to me, at least, it is the something real that
underlies all the delusion of his work. But I diverge a little in
making these comments.

Again the origin of the change from the first period of matriarchy is
sought by Bachofen in religion.

"Each stage of development was marked by its peculiar
religious ideas, produced by the dissatisfaction with which
the dominating idea of the previous stage was regarded; a
dissatisfaction which led to a disappearance of this
condition." "What was gained by religion, fostering the
cause of women, by assigning a mystical and almost divine
character to motherhood was now lost through the same cause.
The loss came in the Greek era. Dionysus started the idea of
the divinity of fatherhood; holding the father to be the
child's true parent, and the mother merely the nurse." In