s the world itself. In one sense the whole of history is a vast
transition. No period stands alone; the present is in every age merely
the shifting point at which the past and the future meet. All things
move onwards. But the movement sometimes takes the form of a cataract,
at others of an even and almost imperceptible current. This is really
another way of saying that the usually slow and gradual course of
change is, at certain stages, interrupted by a more or less prolonged
period of revolution. The process of growth, from being gradual and
imperceptible, becomes violent and conscious.

There can be little doubt that what is called the "Woman's Movement,"
with its disintegrating influences on social opinion and practice, is
bringing vast and momentous changes in women's attitude towards the
universe and towards themselves. A great motive and an enlarging
ideal, a quickening of the woman's spirit, a stirring dream of a new
order--these are what we have gained. We are carried on, though as yet
we know not whither, and there is, of necessity, a little stumbling of
our feet as we seek for a way. Hence the fear, always tending to arise
in periods of social reconstruction, which is felt by many to-day as
women pass out far beyond the established boundaries prescribed for
their sex.

Whoever reflects soberly on the past history of women will not be
surprised at their present movement towards emancipation. Women are
reclaiming a position that is theirs by natural right--a position
which once they held. It may be all very well for those who accept the
authority and headship of the man as the foundation of the family and
of society, to be filled with bewildered fear at what seems to them to
be a quite new assertion of rights on the part of the mothers of the
race. But has the family at all stages of growth been founded on the
authority of the father? Our decision on this question will affect our
outlook on the whole question of Woman's Rights and the relationships
of the two sexes. There are civilisations, older and, as I believe,
wiser than ours that have accepted the predominant position of the
mother as the great central fact on which the family has been
established.

The view that the family, much as it existed among the Hebrew
patriarchs, and as it exists to-day, was primeval and universal is
very deeply rooted. This is not surprising. To reverse the gaze of men
from themselves is no easy task. The predominance of the m