to facilitate progress on the war-path; or at home rearing up children, who rarely rise up to call them blessed; or they are waiting, in submissive obedience, at the feet of their reclining lords, to be petted and caressed or cursed and kicked, as passion or caprice may dictate—­subjected alike to neglect, contempt, and abuse.  Exceptions to this general rule doubtless occurred occasionally; for irresponsible power does not of necessity convert every man into an unfeeling tyrant, just as under other systems of slavery, some were fortunate enough to fall into the hands of kind, considerate owners, whose hearts they inspired with love and tenderness; but neither bound wife nor bond slave was treated with kindness, respect, or common justice, because their inherent right to be so treated was recognized.  It mattered little to the women of this period whether they were held as wives or concubines; their actual condition was that of slavery.

In none of the countries of antiquity had women more liberty than in Egypt; and yet what was her real condition there?  Alexander remarked, it is true, that though “the women promised obedience, men often yielded it;” and, in many instances, it is equally true that the laws respecting women were immeasurably in advance of those of neighboring nations; as, for instance:  Each wife had entire control of her own house.  Among the princes nearest the throne, women might take their places, and even reign as sovereigns (a regency was frequently committed to their care); or they might rule as joint sovereigns with another party; and as Isis took rank above Osiris, so in such a case the woman might take rank above the man.[A]

But notwithstanding this advance beyond other nations, they were still spoken of, and in many instances not only treated as inferiors, but held in hopeless bondage.

Among the Greeks, the wife was at times permitted to take part in public assemblies, but never as the equal of her husband.  She neither went with him to dinner, when he dined out, nor sat at table with those whom he invited to his house.  Aristotle held that “the relation of men to women is that of governor to a subject.”  Plato says:  “A woman’s virtue may be summed up in a few words:  for she has only to manage the house well, keeping what there is in it, and obeying her husband.”  Again, in further proof of the low estimation in which he held women, he says:  “Of the men that were born, such as are timid and have passed through life unjustly are, we suppose, changed into women in their second generation.”  Plutarch tells us that women “were compelled to go barefoot, in order to induce them to keep at home.”