“There were three candidates for every woman’s hand, two of whom were bound to be disappointed, and so one-half the population—two-thirds of the masculine part—were doomed to a life of single misery. They did not accept the situation with fortitude or resignation. There was no end to quarreling and personal antagonisms and violence between rivals, and there arose what there had not been for several generations, and that was a “dangerous class.” It became unsafe for married people of either sex to appear on the streets unguarded. The “social evil” that in your day was so sore a question had long since under the conditions of universal matrimony, died out, and had practically ceased for a century and a half, now came again into existence in a more virulent form than ever. All classes felt the relaxation of the former restraints, and immorality became frightfully prevalent. Divorce which had become almost obsolete, now came to be an every day occurrence, not often, however, upon the complaint of the comparatively helpless husband, but upon that of the fickle wife who had succumbed to the superior attractions of a newer affinity. Divorce was now practically in the hands of the wife, and she dismissed her husband when he failed to please her, or when a more eligible mate presented himself. All women of course were not like that, but they all had the power to be, and a frightfully large proportion of them were.” “The wise men of our race,” said I, “especially those of ancient times have generally regarded women as being not merely inferior to men physically and mentally, but as being essentially depraved and incapable of being good except under the stimulation and wise and pious discipline and example of men. Does the state of society you have described to me bear out this opinion? It seems that the women have broken loose from the wholesome restraints that were imposed on them in the former constitution of society in which men were supreme; and like a runaway team they are about to smash the wagon and dash out their own brains.” “No,” he replied, “the state of affairs I have described does not at all confirm the opinion of the old blockheads you call your wise men. If they had been really wise they would have known that both women and men are created, formed, moulded and finished by their environment. Now woman constitutes a part of the environment of man and man constitutes a part, but in old times he constituted a relatively much larger part of the environment of woman. So it might be said, that if man was better than woman, it was because her influence on him was better or at least less harmful than his influence on her.