manner. the sexual selection will work in an opposite With a new ideal of woman, clever would be preferred to the stupid, and the 1 mother of clever daughters to the mother of stupid daughters. Thus, even if the assertion of Carl Vogt were true, it offers no conclusive argument against the political and social equalisation of the sexes; because this equalisation would on any recognised principles of evolution, bring about ultimately a natural equality. On the whole, however, one may fairly retain the suspicion that this alleged difference is not a fact, and that the greater average eminence (in the past) of men than of women in intellectual pursuits is entirely due (as on any theory it must be mostly due) to the effect of institutions. and customs and ideas operating within the lifetime of the individual and not to differences physically inherited. Little girls are certainly not on the average stupider than little boys: and, if on the average men show more intellectual ability than women, this must be due to the way in which the two sexes are respectively treated in the interval. But, even if there were an average mental superiority in men (we have really no right to make definite assertions on the subject, because women have never yet had a fair chance of showing their capacities on a sufficiently large scale), Plato's argument would still hold that, though there may be a general superiority of men, yet there are many women superior to many men, and it is a pity that the State should lose the advantage of their services. With regard to the argument from nature. generally, even if we agreed to the generalisation that advance implies increasing differentiation of sex and not the very reverse, it must be insisted that difference is not the same thing as inequality (though the two are very apt to be confounded), and that the very difference between the sexes is a reason why the State should not disregard the opinions and the feelings of half, or in old countries more than half, the population. But the main point is really this: that society has enabled man to rise above the mere animal and, as has been pointed out, to be influenced not merely by natural pressure but by ideas. The idea of equality has grown up-I shall not at present enquire how far it is due to the universal citizenship of the Roman Empire and to the widening conceptions of Roman Law, how far to the Stoic philosophy with its brotherhood of mankind, and how far to Christianity as an inter-national or non-national religion, declaring the equality of all before God, though carrying with it the Judaic supremacy of the male sex. When this idea of equality was proclaimed in the American revolution, the negro slaves were conveniently overlooked; when it was proclaimed in the French revolution, the existence of a whole sex seemed to be forgotten by every one but Condorcet. And there are many oldfashioned Radicals still, who lack sufficient faith in their own creed to apply it in a thoroughgoing way. How often does one hear the argument, Oh, but women are naturally Conservative, and if they had political power, we should be governed by the priests." It may rather be said that the instability of republican government in France has been very much due to its not having appealed to the sympathies of the mothers of the French people. If women are expressly and purposely kept in the patriarchal stage of social evolution, is it wonderful that their feelings and sympathies mostly correspond to an antique social type? It is hypocritical to deny the political capacity of women, simply because their political incapacity has through long centuries been diligently cultivated; but this is always the favourite sort of argument with the jealous champions of privilege :-first to prevent a race or class or sex from acquiring a capacity, and then to justify the refusal of rights on the grounds of this absence-to shut up a bird in a narrow cage and then pretend to argue with it that it is incapable of flying. What is the reason of the power which the Catholic Church possesses over the minds of women, except that the Church alone offers them any escape into a larger circle of interests than those of the patriarchal family? They do not reflect that the Church brands them with a stamp of inferiority,' that did not exist 1 Even the cult of the Madonna, which is a revival of the female element in deity, did not do away with the degradation of the woman. There is a story (given in Grimm's Household Tales, Note to Tale 139) of St. Bernard, that he once went into a Cathedral to pay his devotions to the image of the Virgin. He fell thrice on his knees before it, and full of fervour uttered the words, "Oh, gracious, mild and highly favoured mother of God!" Hereupon the image began to speak, and said "Welcome, my Bernard!" But the saint, who was displeased by this, reprimanded the Queen of Heaven for speaking, in these |