Woman and Her Masterr, Vol. 2 of 2 Vols.

WOMAN AND HER MASTER, A History of the Female Sex, Vol. 2 of 2 Vols., by Lady Morgan. This set, written by a woman, chronicles the advance of science and intelligence over brute force, and that very advance measures the advance of woman as an intelligent person, the equal of man in her intellectual abilities. As long as women were left unschooled, even those of the upper society, they were not able to compete with men. Not only were women not able to compete because of lack of schooling, they were also the victim of physical oppression, even chastisement and legally authorized physical abuse. So we have advanced to a better state of the status of women, but, amazingly, there are still those who pass laws to deny to women the control of their own personal bodies and lives. From the Preface we read: "THE chronicles of six thousand years, the records of the known world, lie open for the benefit and the wonder of mankind, preserving, in pages indited by the lights of their respective times, monuments of the ignorance, the timidity, and the credulity, of successive generations. … It was not till the close of a long and unmitigated reign of barbarism, even in regions most favorable to intellectual culture, that mind began at last to assume some supremacy over brute force; but, from its first inroad of inquiry upon the density of ignorance and prejudice, it has proceeded steadily onward in its high career, unsubdued by penalties and persecutions, undaunted by calumnies and contempt. Neglected, when not discouraged, often repelled, and occasionally crushed, amidst the conflicts of races, and the fall of empires, science has receded only to advance ; multiplying the blessings of physical existence to the species, and “purging the general weal” by its extorted truths." Personally I can only dream of the time when ignorant people will, at least, learn to mind their own business, especially the religious fanatics - that is to say, the religiously insane.
Emmett F. Fields