CHRISTINE DE PISAN 



to interfere in matters which seem essentially 

 man's business. Her remarks on the subject of 

 marriage are certainly practical, and at the same 

 time disclose a strange unloveliness in con- 

 temporary manners. She is not of St. Paul's 

 opinion that it is better not to marry, but all 

 the same she suggests that, unless without 

 means, that woman is happier who does not 

 marry a second time, seeing that the life of a 

 married woman is often worse than if she were 

 in the hands of the Saracens the terror of the 

 Middle Ages, and that frequently after her 

 husband has been out enjoying himself, her only 

 supper, on his return, is a beating. She counsels 

 the education of women, and condemns those 

 who suggest that this will conduce to unseemly 

 ways. In truth, her wonderful sense of justice, 

 and her enlightened opinions generally, make it 

 a marvellous resume of statesmanship as far as it 

 goes. It is a real Utopia. Perhaps to Christine 

 it was a glimpse of the Promised Land ! As 

 we read her views on the education of boys and 

 girls together, in this happy city, we feel that 

 she might be discussing with us the problems 

 of to-day. She says that if boys and girls are 

 taught the same subjects, girls can, as a rule, 

 learn just as well, and just as intelligently, as 

 boys, and so on. In this conclusion she fore- 

 stalls the learned Cornelius Agrippa, a doctor 

 and philosopher of the sixteenth century, and 

 one of the most original and remarkable men of 

 his time, who boldly asserts that sex is merely 



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