Female honor is the general opinion in regard to a girl that she is pure, and in regard to a wife that she is faithful.  The importance of this opinion rests upon the following considerations.  Women depend upon men in all the relations of life; men upon women, it might be said, in one only.  So an arrangement is made for mutual interdependence—­man undertaking responsibility for all woman’s needs and also for the children that spring from their union—­an arrangement on which is based the welfare of the whole female race.  To carry out this plan, women have to band together with a show of esprit de corps, and present one undivided front to their common enemy, man,—­who possesses all the good things of the earth, in virtue of his superior physical and intellectual power,—­in order to lay siege to and conquer him, and so get possession of him and a share of those good things.  To this end the honor of all women depends upon the enforcement of the rule that no woman should give herself to a man except in marriage, in order that every man may be forced, as it were, to surrender and ally himself with a woman; by this arrangement provision is made for the whole of the female race.  This is a result, however, which can be obtained only by a strict observance of the rule; and, accordingly, women everywhere show true esprit de corps in carefully insisting upon its maintenance.  Any girl who commits a breach of the rule betrays the whole female race, because its welfare would be destroyed if every woman were to do likewise; so she is cast out with shame as one who has lost her honor.  No woman will have anything more to do with her; she is avoided like the plague.  The same doom is awarded to a woman who breaks the marriage tie; for in so doing she is false to the terms upon which the man capitulated; and as her conduct is such as to frighten other men from making a similar surrender, it imperils the welfare of all her sisters.  Nay, more; this deception and coarse breach of troth is a crime punishable by the loss, not only of personal, but also of civic honor.  This is why we minimize the shame of a girl, but not of a wife; because, in the former case, marriage can restore honor, while in the latter, no atonement can be made for the breach of contract.

Once this esprit de corps is acknowledged to be the foundation of female honor, and is seen to be a wholesome, nay, a necessary arrangement, as at bottom a matter of prudence and interest, its extreme importance for the welfare of women will be recognized.  But it does not possess anything more than a relative value.  It is no absolute end, lying beyond all other aims of existence and valued above life itself.  In this view, there will be nothing to applaud in the forced and extravagant conduct of a Lucretia or a Virginius—­conduct which can easily degenerate into tragic farce, and produce a terrible feeling of revulsion.  The conclusion of Emilia Galotti, for instance, makes one leave the theatre completely