These notions have served
only to make women more arrogant and overbearing; so that one is
occasionally reminded of the holy apes in Benares, who in the
consciousness of their sanctity and inviolable position, think they
can do exactly as they please.
But in the West, the woman, and especially the _lady_, finds herself
in a false position; for woman, rightly called by the ancients,
_sexus sequior_, is by no means fit to be the object of our honor and
veneration, or to hold her head higher than man and be on equal terms
with him. The consequences of this false position are sufficiently
obvious. Accordingly, it would be a very desirable thing if this
Number-Two of the human race were in Europe also relegated to her
natural place, and an end put to that lady nuisance, which not only
moves all Asia to laughter, but would have been ridiculed by Greece
and Rome as well. It is impossible to calculate the good effects which
such a change would bring about in our social, civil and political
arrangements. There would be no necessity for the Salic law: it would
be a superfluous truism. In Europe the _lady_, strictly so-called, is
a being who should not exist at all; she should be either a housewife
or a girl who hopes to become one; and she should be brought up, not
to be arrogant, but to be thrifty and submissive.
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