In the West, the woman, that is to say the “lady,” finds herself in a fausse position; for woman, rightly named by the ancients sexus sequior, is by no means fit to be the object of our honour and veneration, or to hold her head higher than man and to have the same rights as he.  The consequences of this fausse position are sufficiently clear.  Accordingly, it would be a very desirable thing if this Number Two of the human race in Europe were assigned her natural position, and the lady-grievance got rid of, which is not only ridiculed by the whole of Asia, but would have been equally ridiculed by Greece and Rome.  The result of this would be that the condition of our social, civil, and political affairs would be incalculably improved.  The Salic law would be unnecessary; it would be a superfluous truism.  The European lady, strictly speaking, is a creature who should not exist at all; but there ought to be housekeepers, and young girls who hope to become such; and they should be brought up not to be arrogant, but to be domesticated and submissive.  It is exactly because there are ladies in Europe that women of a lower standing, that is to say, the greater majority of the sex, are much more unhappy than they are in the East.  Even Lord Byron says (Letters and Papers, by Thomas Moore, vol. ii. p. 399), Thought of the state of women under the ancient Greeks—­convenient enough.  Present state, a remnant of the barbarism of the chivalric and feudal ages—­artificial and unnatural.  They ought to mind home—­and be well fed and clothed—­but not mixed in society.  Well educated, too, in religion—­but to read neither poetry nor politics—­nothing but books of piety and cookery.  Music—­drawing—­dancing—­also a little gardening and ploughing now and then.  I have seen them mending the roads in Epirus with good success.  Why not, as well as hay-making and milking?

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In our part of the world, where monogamy is in force, to marry means to halve one’s rights and to double one’s duties.  When the laws granted woman the same rights as man, they should also have given her a masculine power of reason.  On the contrary, just as the privileges and honours which the laws decree to women surpass what Nature has meted out to them, so is there a proportional decrease in the number of women who really share these privileges; therefore the remainder are deprived of their natural rights in so far as the others have been given more than Nature accords.

For the unnatural position of privilege which the institution of monogamy, and the laws of marriage which accompany it, assign to the woman, whereby she is regarded throughout as a full equivalent of the man, which she is not by any means, cause intelligent and prudent men to reflect a great deal before they make so great a sacrifice and consent to so unfair an arrangement.  Therefore, whilst among polygamous nations every woman finds maintenance, where monogamy