M. Talleyrand Perigord,[24] once Bishop of Autun, observes “that to see one half of the human race excluded by the other, from all participation in Government, is a political phenomenon that on abstract principles it is impossible to explain.” We think the phenomenon very capable of explanation, but the reason is to be found, not in the perfection of human nature, but in its incompleteness. Footnote 24: _See_ Dedication of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin’s “Vindication of the Rights of Women.” The Romance of the old world was carried on by the “fair women and brave men,” little being said of the _plain women_ and the _weak men_. Civilisation has advanced far enough to recognise the claims of the _weak men_; we want it to go further, and help wisely the cause of the _weak women_. For that we require, reversing the adjectives, armies of “brave women and fair men,” _brave women_ who seek not their lost birthright with futile tears, but with self-sacrificing energies, and heart-inspired sympathies; and _fair men_ who can understand that none lose through another’s gain, and that theirs is not Liberty but License, that use a self-asserted power to the restriction of the rights and privileges of others. Various tests have been proposed to mark different degrees of Civilisation. I believe that the common-place man of to-day might suggest that the multiplication of Machinery is the most satisfactory index. More thoughtful men would consider a recognition of the first principles of Justice a safer ground. Some of these assert that the position of women is the surest test of the Civilisation of a Country and of a Time. If this be so, Nineteenth Century men must look to their character as posterity will judge it, for the Century is very near its close. They are apt to be judged not by what they have done, but by what they have left undone. In reality one cause of the existence of so much statutory evil is this, that the majority of men are so much better than the laws—they do not understand their full bearing.