[155] A certain French writer, despite a wholly mistaken admiration for J. S. Mill, is nevertheless bound to admit, in reference to Mill’s _Subjection of Women_ and his strangely wild and unreasoning infatuation for Mrs. Taylor, that: “_Il n’en est pas moins curieux et remarquable que, sous l’aiguillon de ce sentiment, cet esprit froid, si fort, si durement logique, ait pris sans hésiter cette attitude._” See _Psychologie de la Femme_, by Henri Marion, (Paris, 1903, p. 257). In his _Criticisms on Contemporary Thought and Thinkers_ the Rev. R. H. Hutton, M.A., writes as follows on Mill’s relation to Mrs. Taylor; “His passionate reverence for his wife’s memory and genius—in his own words ‘a religion’—was one which, as he must have been perfectly sensible, he could not possibly make to appear otherwise than extravagant, not to say an hallucination, in the eyes of the rest of mankind.” (See Vol. I, p. 173.) See the same work for some sharp and well-deserved criticism of Mill’s _Utilitarianism_. [156] _Germania_, chap. IX. [157] _Ibid._, chap. XLV. [158] See _Decline and Fall_, chap. IX. [159] _The Importance of Women in Anglo-Saxon Times_, by the Rt. Rev. G. F. Browne, D.D., p. 12. [160] Browne (Op. cit.), p. 12. The women of the ruling class in Britain at the time of the Roman subjugation of the island, were also distinguished for their cultivation; such women, I mean, as Cartismandua, the earliest British queen to be mentioned in history, Boadicea, and Martia, surnamed Proba, whose laws were ultimately confirmed, and partly adopted, by King Alfred and Edward the Confessor. [161] The only reason why these last two did not share the honours of royalty with their husbands was because of the crimes of the Queen Edburga who had poisoned her husband. [162] Browne (Op. cit.), p. 23. [163] _Ibid._, p. 23. [164] _Ibid._, p. 23. [165] See _Lives of the Queens of England_, by Agnes Strickland. Vol. I. Introduction. [166] We have only to think of the enormous amount of faith and intense inward conviction that the successful survival of such an ordeal must mean, in order to realize that Emma of Normandy must have possessed qualities that are extremely rare even among the women of to-day. [167] _Subjection of Women_, chap. I, section 9. Henry III’s wife and mother of Edward I, although perhaps extravagant and reckless, enjoyed an excellent education. [168] _Histoire de la Civilisation en France_ (Paris 1846), Vol. III, pp. 332-333. [169] See Lacroix, _Science et Lettres au Moyen Age et à l’époque de la Renaissance_ (2nd Ed.), p. 169, where the author, speaking of the beginning of the fourteenth century, says: “_Bien des femmes ne donnaient confiance qu’à des personnes de leur sexe pour des opérations d’une nature délicate._” [170] See Mary Bateson, _Mediæval England_, p. 286. [171] See G. S. Coulson, M.A., _A Mediæval Garner_, p. 58.