Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/358

 herself of this means, she misuses it, and gains a terrible power over men."

"Wherein does this special power lie?" I asked.

"Where does it lie? Everywhere, in everything. Go through the shops in any large city! Millions of roubles' worth of goods are displayed here,—it is hard to estimate the labour expended on them,—and see whether in nine-tenths of these shops there is anything for the use of men. The whole luxury of life is demanded and supported by women.

"Count all the factories. An immense proportion of them make useless adornments, carriages, furniture, baubles for women. Millions of people, whole generations of slaves, perish in this forced labour of the factories, merely to satisfy this craving of the women. The women, like queens, keep in bondage and at hard labour nine-tenths of the human race. All this comes from having humiliated them and deprived them of equal rights with men. So they avenge themselves by acting on our sensuality, and by catching us in their nets. Yes, that is what it comes from.

"Women have made of themselves such a weapon of sensual incitement that a man is not able to treat a woman calmly. The moment a man walks over to a woman he comes under the influence of her poison, and becomes intoxicated. In former days I never felt at ease when I saw a woman all dressed up in her evening attire, but now I simply feel terribly, I cannot help seeing something dangerous for men and illicit, and I feel like calling a policeman and asking protection against a peril, and demanding that the dangerous object be taken away and removed.

"Yes, you laugh!" he cried to me, "but it is not at all a joke. I am sure that the time will come, and maybe very soon, when people will understand it and will wonder how society could exist where, in violation of the