"The Church, St. Thomas d'Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, St. Paul, and Auguste Comte, as well as the Romans, the Greeks, Manu and Mahomet teach that woman is made for the pleasure and use of man, and that she should be subjected to him; now I have sufficiently established these great truths by affirmations without reply. It is demonstrated to-day, therefore, to all who believe in me that woman is a passive being, having the germ of nothing, who owes everything to man, and that, consequently, she belongs to him as the work to the workman. Lest my solution might appear somewhat harsh to you, or to savor too much of antiquity of the Middle Ages, I have borrowed of the modern innovators their farce of Androgyny; I have made the couple the organ of Justice; in this couple, woman, transformed by man, becomes a triple deity, a domestic idol, subject in everything to her priest. I shut her up in the household, and permit her to have only the superintendence of festivals and spectacles, the education of children and maidens, etc. "Is it not evident, gentlemen, that woman, because she is weaker than we, is, _by justice_, condemned to obey us, and that _her liberty consists in experiencing no amorous emotion, even for her husband_? Is it not evident, in consequence, that you, who do not think as I, are _effeminate, absurd_ men, and that the women who are no more willing to be slaves than we were in '89 are _insurgents, impure women whom sin has rendered mad_?" The majority of the assembly laugh; De Girardin shrugs his shoulders; Legouvé bites his lip in order not to laugh; Michelet appears troubled at this sally which may spoil everything. As, in uttering the word _insurgent_, the orator glances at me with marked design, I cannot help saying "yes, I deserve the name of _insurgent_ like our fathers of '89. As to you, if you do not amend, I fear greatly that I shall see you die duly confessed and blessed with extreme unction ... and you will have well deserved it!" Now, gentlemen, let us ascertain the vote of your honorable assembly. Four schools,--the Communists, the St. Simonians, the Fusionians and the Phalansterians,--with one publicist, M. de Girardin, who makes as much noise by himself alone as a whole school, are for the liberty of woman and the equality of the sexes. MM. Comte, Proudhon and Michelet are against the liberty of women and the equality of the sexes. M. Legouvé and his innumerable adherents wish liberty for woman, and desire that she should labor to become equal to man through equivalence of functions. Which means that the great majority of those _who think_ are, in different degrees, for our emancipation. Now that my readers are acquainted with your several opinions, gentlemen, it belongs to me, a woman, to speak myself in behalf of my right, without leaning on anything but Justice and Reason. PART II. OBJECTIONS TO THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMAN. NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF WOMAN. LOVE. MARRIAGE. LEGAL REFORMS. SUMMARY.