Nevertheless, when we begin to inquire into the origin of the order under which we live, we cannot believe in our hearts that men really ever got together and said: "Go to! we'll enslave the women!" On the contrary, we find a difficulty in doubting that we all merely followed our lines of least resistance, and that these lines brought women so constantly to the exercise of patience at the cradle and the hearth, and brought men so constantly to the exercise of physical force on the battlefield or in the chase, that the hands of each became subdued to that they worked in.
Women's hands, as civilisation advanced, grew softer and smaller; man's grew larger and more muscular as they exercised their power to grip or strike. The arrangement between the sexes seems to have come about without blame or credit on either side. It was the best working arrangement the uncivilised could devise. The trouble with it to-day is that it long ago served its purpose, and became outworn. We all, men and women alike, have arrived at a place where we must devise something better. But we shall not come by any fair understanding of the past, nor by any helpful scheme of betterment for the future, till women realise and frankly admit that men, equally wath themselves, are victims of circumstance.
The object of these pages is twofold. One is to put forward a plea which, if it were generally allowed, might serve better than anything else to do
