Page:Lesbia Newman - Dalton - 1889.djvu/296

 one for those women who are fitted for it by their temperament; but for those who are not, there is honour in the other walk, that of the matron. And I say that it is contrary to nature and to common sense that a matron should be bound to one man against her will. Nature indicates that if either sex ought to be bound, it is ours. Polygamy is unnatural as well as unjust; polyandry, whether unjust or not, is natural. Without going further into this, it is obvious to anyone whose understanding has not been abused, that to bind women by a false code of virtue, which outrages nature and tramples on common sense, is about the most deliberate crime of which society can be guilty.’

‘Slay and spare not,’ said Lesbia, smiling. ‘But still, Mr Mountjoy, what have your church services to do with all this?’

‘I am coming to that,’ he replied, ‘and in doing so I shall answer the question as to how the social evil degrades women. The degradation consists in the theological character which has been artificially impressed upon the whole question. That theological character is a perversion and a misrepresentation throughout. It is the devilry of the priestcraft of past ages. For, let it once be assumed—as those theocracies did assume—that woman is spiritually man’s inferior, and there is then no limit to the proprietary rights he may not claim over her on that false assumption. She becomes a marketable commodity in his hands.’

‘That’s very severe, Mr Mountjoy,’ said Lesbia. ‘I cannot but think you paint the world blacker than it is. And I still wait to hear how your services are to supply the remedy.’

‘They cannot do so directly and immediately, Miss Newman,’ he replied, ‘but they bear upon the matter in this way. They set up as an object of reverence those very things which have been the object of irreverent handling by those