SEX AND SOCIETY 243 



Thus, in a word, we find ourselves meeting 

 Bergson upon a fresh path ; and this practically 

 and concretely, as we began, with a reading 

 of the interplay of the sexes in society. 

 Interplay in ways beyond the sex-antagonisms, 

 the alternating revolts and repressions of the 

 moment ; yet not so far away as to the active 

 combatants at present seems. 



Cherchez lafemme is no mere gibe, but as true 

 a word as ever was spoken in jest : even to- 

 day it is a working maxim for the detective 

 as well as a staple element of plot for his 

 story-teller. In history we have long been 

 accustomed to think of this feminine influence 

 as on the whole unfavourable, from the fall 

 of man, the war of Troy to the latest society 

 scandal. But this plainly is but at most a 

 half-truth, and the lower half at that. 



Here lies before us a lecture-syllabus of 

 " Women in the Making of History," by Miss 

 Alice Shield, unfortunately never now to be 

 delivered, yet surely to be handed on : a 

 noble history, of women Greek and Roman, 

 woman as Christian and Martyr, women of 

 chivalry and romance, women in defensive 

 war and patriotism, women of the Re- 

 naissance and the Reformation, women of 

 the Cinquecento, the Grand Siecle and the 

 Augustine Age, women of the Revolution, 

 and women of Modern days. Here plainly 

 is a sign that the writing of history, even in 

 our Universities is not to be permanently 

 smothered in charter-chests, but is coming 

 forth anew, to fuller life and complete! 

 humanity. As professors writing history, 



