“Yes, much worse than the animal is man when he does not live as a man. Thus was I. The horrible part is that I believed, inasmuch as I did not allow myself to be seduced² by other women that I was leading an honest family life, that I was a very mortal being, and that if we had quarrels, the fault was in my wife, and in her character.

“But it is evident that the fault was not in her. She was like everybody else, like the majority. She was brought up according to the principles exacted by the situation of our society,— that is, as all the young girls of our wealthy classes, without exception, are brought up, and as they cannot fail to be brought up. How many times we hear or read of reflections upon the abnormal condition of women, and upon what they ought to be. But these are only vain words. The education of women results from the real and not imaginary view which the world entertains of women’s vocation³. According to this view, the condition of women consists in procuring⁴ pleasure and it is to that end that her education is directed. From her infancy⁵ she is taught only those things that are calculated to increase her charm. Every young girl is accustomed to think only of that.

“As the serfs were brought up solely⁶ to please their masters, so woman is brought up to attract men. It cannot be otherwise. But you will say, perhaps, that that applies only to young girls who are badly brought up, but that there is another education, an education that is serious, in the schools, an education in the dead languages, an education in the institutions of midwifery, an education in medical courses, and in other courses. It is false.

“Every sort of feminine education has for its sole object the attraction of men.

“Some attract by music or curly hair, others by science or by civic⁷ virtue⁸. The object is the same, and cannot be otherwise (since no other object exists),— to

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