Page:The booke of thenseygnementes and techynge that the Knyght of the Towre made to his doughters - 1902.pdf/218

 spindle and gather that then, as now, the sexes consisted of the fair and the unfair, though she will also observe that in a few follies and weaknesses not yet quite obsolete, such as an extravagant love of finery, or the inability to keep a secret, some old-fashioned women still resemble their mediaeval ancestresses. Of the Knight's actual ideas as to the position of women, however, we could judge more justly after a perusal of the book which he made for his sons, but unfortunately this has not survived. It is possible that he over-coloured such parts of his pictures as he wished to impress most forcibly on the minds of his sons and daughters respectively, and the sons' book may have leaned in the opposite direction. But more probably it did not.

The ethical standard of the book frequently falls somewhat low, inasmuch as it makes expediency and the hope of material reward to loom very large on the moral horizon. On the whole, it is uncertain that readers of to-day will share the high opinion of this work which was held byCaxton and the English matron but whether or no, they will find, after sifting its precepts, stated and implied, a large residue which will remain good and wholesome to time, notwithstanding that they come to us all from another country and another age. Perhaps the only salient point in which the literature that the Knight of the Tower thought fit for his daughters differs from that which would be set before young gentlewomen of to-day, lies in its outspokenness, which sometimes amounts, according to modern notions, to obscenity. But this will be seen to be a difference in manner rather than in essence; it was characteristic of the period; and though to us it appears a strange feature in a book intended for young women,