Transcriber’s Note Italic text displayed as: _italic_ WOMAN A Vindication _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ A DEFENCE OF ARISTOCRACY MAN’S DESCENT FROM THE GODS THE FALSE ASSUMPTIONS OF DEMOCRACY ETC. WOMAN A Vindication By ANTHONY M. LUDOVICI CONSTABLE · LONDON BOMBAY · SYDNEY · 1923 _Printed in Great Britain by_ Butler & Tanner, _Frome and London_ CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE INTRODUCTION vii Part I PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS I POSITIVENESS—THE SAYING OF “YEA” TO LIFE 3 II THE SUBJECT TREATED GENERALLY 24 III WOMAN AND HER UNCONSCIOUS IMPULSES 37 IV THE POSITIVE MAN AND THE POSITIVE WOMAN 54 V VIRGIN LOVE IN THE POSITIVE MAN AND THE POSITIVE GIRL 80 VI THE POSITIVE ENGLISH GIRL 104 Part II INFERENCES FROM PART I VII THE MARRIAGE OF THE POSITIVE GIRL AND THE POSITIVE MAN 125 VIII BREACHES OF THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT AND DIVORCE 178 IX THE OLD MAID AND HER RELATION TO SOCIETY 229 X THE VIRTUES AND VICES OF WOMEN 280 XI WOMEN IN ART, PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. THE OUTLOOK. CONCLUSION 346 INDEX 369 INTRODUCTION “The most disgusting cant permeates everything. Except for the representation of savage and violent sentiments, everything is stifled by it.”—Stendhal, _De l’Amour_. The object of this volume is twofold: in the first place to raise certain weighty objections to that industrialization and commercialization of woman, which has stamped the “progress” of Western Europe during the last fifty years; and, secondly, to reveal woman, not only as a creature whose least engaging characteristics are but the outcome of the most vital qualities within her, but also as a social being in whom these least engaging characteristics themselves only become disturbing and undesirable when she is partially or totally out of hand.