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THE INTERESTS OF POSTERITY
167
in comparison with man. She is hampered in a thousand
ways by the functions of her sex, and it is impossible for
her to develop the same muscular force. However,
throughout the ages, this drawback has lost much of its significance
by the progress of civilisation and culture. Legislation and
the collective will, represented by the executive power of
the State, have superseded the right of forcible action
which in former times was assumed by the individual,
and, on the other hand, Society has laid down the rule
that men should not use their superior muscular strength
against women. The object and glory of chivalry was to
induce men not to use the privilege of force in their
dealings with the weaker sex. Violation was made a criminal
offence. The position of women has been further improved
by granting them prior consideration whenever danger
threatens. " Women and children first " is the unwritten
law.
It would, therefore, appear not only from the point of
view of the order of nature, but also in the organisation of
civilised society, that the idea of the preponderating
importance of women over men has received an unmistakable and
adequate expression. But this is not the view of the
movement for the so-called emancipation of women. This
movement has not only the laudable object of improving the
social status and education of women, but also strives to
launch them into public and political life on the same level
footing as men, setting them up as rivals in all walks of
life. There is no reason for supposing that such opposition
could not be successfully carried on, and the present
enlistment of the services of women under the stress of the
exigencies of war conditions has amply confirmed this view.
But it is quite another question whether such an order of
things in the long run under the ordinary circumstances of
peace would benefit the nation.
The functions assigned by Nature’s laws to men and
women are so totally void of rivalry that there should be
no idea of antagonistic competition. It is well to remember
that the two sexes did not always exist in animal life, but
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