22 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



wrong erected by society for its own protection. So 

 long as this standard exists, the claims of the modern 

 courtesan to consideration will stand upon no higher 

 a level than those of the defaulting cashier. 



The Greeks attained to that state of social advance- 

 ment in which wives are secluded. They did not, 

 like the Eomans, rise beyond it. They never dis- 

 pensed with the gyngeceum — an institution closely 

 resembling the Mahomedan harem. But we have no 

 right to blame the men of that age for their treat- 

 ment of their womenkind. The gynseceum was an 

 educational stage in the experience of women the 

 benefits of which we now enjoy, and it is very prob- 

 able that if Greek husbands had trusted to the sense 

 of honour of their wives, which was then only begin- 

 ning to be cultivated, they would have leant upon a 

 broken reed.^ 



In Greek literature jealousy is frankly represented 

 in the initiatory stage that we have endeavoured to 



^ Confidence in female virtue was of slow growth. In the four- 

 teenth century French wives were not allowed to receive visits from 

 men except in the presence of tlieir husbands. Anne of Brittany 

 introduced the fashion of ladies appearing publicly at Court. This 

 fashion was afterwards carried into England, but even down to the 

 time of the Revolution English women of rank seldom appeared in 

 the streets without a mask. The modern veil or " fall " is probably 

 a survival of the custom. 



