“Laboulaye distinctly advises his readers to keep women in a state of moderate ignorance, for ‘notre empire est détruit, si l’homme est reconnu’ (Our empire is at an end when man is found out).”—(Note to Bebel, Walther’s translation, p. 73.) _Id._—“... _break his timeworn yoke_.” As already shown, the subjugation of woman has not been an incident of Western “civilisation” alone. Mrs. Eliza W. Farnham relates that “When a Chinese Mandarin in California was told that the women of America were nearly all taught to read and write, and that a majority of them were able to keep books for their husbands, if they chose to do so, he shook his head thoughtfully, and, with a foreboding sigh, replied, ‘If he readee, writee, by’n-by he lickee all the men.’ Was that a barbarian sentiment, or rather, perhaps, a presentiment of the higher sovereignty coming?”—(“Woman and Her Era,” Vol. II., p. 41.) XXXIV. 5.—“... _his servitude_ ...” “Villeins were not protected by Magna Charta. “_Nullus liber homo capiatur vel imprisonetur_,” &c., was cautiously expressed to exclude the poor villein, for, as Lord Coke tells us, the lord may beat his villein, and, if it be without cause, he cannot have any remedy. What a degraded condition for a being endued with reason!”—Edward Christian (“Note to Blackstone’s Commentaries,” Book II., Chap. VI.) Mr. Christian’s exclamation of concern is doubtless meant to apply to the serf, yet was not the lord’s position equally despicable? 6.—“... _in turn was master to a slave_.” This was, in fact, simply extending the spirit of the feudal system (with its serfdom as just pictured), a little further. Buckle exemplifies in ancient French society the servility descending from one grade to another in man:—“By virtue of which each class exercising great power over the one below it, the subordination and subserviency of the whole were completely maintained.... This, indeed, is but part of the old scheme to create distinctions for which Nature has given no warrant, to substitute a superiority which is conventional for that which is real, and thus try to raise little minds above the level of great ones. The utter failure, and, as society advances, the eventual cessation of all such attempts is certain.” But, meanwhile, evil accompaniments are apparent, as Buckle further instances by saying: “Le Vassor, who wrote late in the reign of Louis XIV., bitterly says: ‘Les Français accoutumés à l’esclavage, ne sentent plus la pesanteur de leurs chaînes.’”—(“History of Civilisation in England,” Vol. II, Chaps III., IV.) That the foregoing habits or foibles are human rather than simply masculine, or that the imitation of them very naturally spreads to the other sex, would seem to be shown by such evidence as Letourneau gives:—