Adams Wife 305 



Christianity be meant the example and teachings of 

 Christ, the tenderest and gentlest respecter of the 

 rights of womanhood who ever lived; but it is not 

 true, if by Christianity is meant the mass of dogmas 

 and customs which the ecclesiastician regards as 

 constituting Christianity. 



There really has not been so much change in the 

 usurpations of women as some conservative theo- 

 logians seem to think. There was the Puritan 

 Captain Underhill — 1637. He says in his "Newes 

 from America": "It were strange to nature to 

 think a man should be bound to fulfil the humor of 

 a woman, what arms he should carry, and so forth; 

 but you see God will have it so, that a woman 

 should overcome a man. Therefore let the clamor 

 be quenched I daily hear in my ears, that New 

 England men usurp over their wives and keep them 

 in servile subjection"; and the captain, to be sure 

 that he had Scripture for submitting to his wife, 

 says, "Instance Abraham." But the captain did 

 not want to be misunderstood. There were to be 

 limits to feminine government. "Yet mistake 

 not," he says, "I say not that we are bound to call 

 our wives in council; but we are bound to take 

 their private advice." 



Now, you will see how nicely the captain got 

 around it. What a man is bound to do, that is law 

 and necessity for him. He was not afraid of his 

 wife — not he. He did not make a sentinel of him- 

 self to guard his private demesne from her inva- 



