_Antithesis._ Woman is the mirror of the conscience of man, the incarnation of this conscience; through her alone justice becomes possible; she is the guardian of morals; she is superior to man in moral beauty. 8th _Thesis_. Woman is without virtue. _Antithesis._ Woman excels in tolerance; through her, man learns constancy and true heroism. 9th _Thesis_. Woman is immodest: she takes the initiative in affairs of love. _Antithesis._ Woman alone knows how to be modest; in principle, there are no impure women; woman calms the sensual passions of man. 10th _Thesis_. Woman prefers an ugly, old, and wicked man. No; woman prefers a pretty, mincing puppet, a beau. _Antithesis._ No; woman wishes man strong, valiant, ingenious; she turns from him when he is but a pretty, mincing puppet, a beau. I might go on thus to a hundred, and then make a cross to begin another hundred. Can it be possible that you trifle in this manner with your readers? PROUDHON. The contradiction is not in my thought, but only in the terms. The woman of my thesis is she who has not been subjected to masculine magnetism, to which the woman of my antithesis, on the contrary, has been subjected. AUTHOR. You would have reason to laugh at us, should we take such an answer in earnest. What! have you seen women outside of society, who would have taken men for monkeys? Have you proved that in this menagerie, they think falsely, they write badly, they are worth nothing as to conscience until forty-five years of age? That there, in the absence of men, the women take the initiative in affairs of love? That the conversation of these women exhausts, enervates the men who are not there? That these women prefer the old, ugly and wicked men, or the pretty, mincing puppets, who are not at their disposal? If the woman of your thesis is the one who has not been subjected to masculine influence, why do you take the women whom you attack from among those who have been subjected to it? Your contradictions, Master, are genuine and fair contradictions. For you as for us, there is but one woman: she who lives in the society of man, who has, like him, faults and vices, and who influences him as much as she is influenced by him: the other has never existed except in the brain of mystics and of victims of hallucination. But we will leave this. I have been told that you have spoken of love: it would seem to me impossible, did I not know your audacity. PROUDHON. I have spoken of it, as well as of Marriage. AUTHOR. Well! let us make a little excursion into these two territories. We will first speak of Love. V. PROUDHON. Love!... It wearies and annoys me greatly. I have never yet been able to make my ideas agree on this subject.