_Id._... Buckle quotes from “Fergusson on the Epistles,” 1656, p. 242:—“The great and main duty which a wife, as a wife, ought to learn, and so learn as to practice it, is to be subject to her own husband.” (See also Note XVII., 8.) And Buckle further cites, from “Fox’s Journal,” “After the middle of the seventeenth century the Quakers set up ‘women’s’ meetings, to the disgust of many, and (query, because) in the teeth of St. Paul’s opinion.”—(“Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works,” Vol. I., pp. 375, 384.) _Id._... As already said, the “sanctimonious” claim of “woman’s duty” runs through all religions. Here, for instance, is what is reported in a leader of the _Manchester Guardian_ of August 15th, 1892:— “In this country no one would place suicide in the ranks of the virtues. Here it is a crime, but in China under certain circumstances it is regarded as an act of heroism and devotion worthy of sympathy and of national recognition. Thus the Governor of Shansi forwarded to the Emperor of China a memorial setting forth the virtues as daughter and wife of a lady in that province. She was of good family, both her father and grandfather having been officials in the district. At the age of ten she showed her love for her mother in a peculiarly Chinese fashion. One of the Celestial beliefs is that medicine acquires efficacy by having mingled with it some human flesh, and the little girl cut some from her own body to be used for the purpose of curing an illness which threatened her mother’s life. In 1890 she was married to an ‘expectant magistrate,’ whose expectations were realised by his appointment last autumn to a judicial post. What she had, as a good daughter, done for her mother, she, as a good wife, did also for her husband, who fell ill; but her remedy was inefficacious, and he died. She was now in a position which, according to the Chinese code of ethics, has no responsibilities for a woman. Without parents, husband, or children to demand her affectionate care, she decided to commit suicide, and apparently not only communicated her intentions to those around her, but had their sympathy and support in her decision. We are told that, “only waiting till she had completed the arrangements for her husband’s interment, she swallowed gold and powder of lead. She handed her _trousseau_ to her relations to defray her funeral expenses, and made presents to the younger members of the family and the servants, after which, draped in her state robes, she sat waiting her end. The poison began to work, and soon all was over.” The story of a distracted wife seeking refuge in death from the sorrows of widowhood might doubtless be told of any country in Europe, but the sequel is possible only in China. The Governor of Shansi, struck with the courage of the lady in what he evidently regards as a very proper though somewhat unusual exhibition of conjugal affection, asks in his