CHAPTER IX 

 THE MIND OF WOMAN 



IT has been said in the last chapter that in 

 the background of human consciousness there 

 has always been present the conception of 

 woman's mind as being, in circumstances which 

 men have not allowed themselves to imagine, a 

 power of incalculable magnitude. This concep- 

 tion is visible in the records of many primitive 

 peoples. It is to be found in later Roman history ; 

 it was in evidence for a brief space in the second 

 and third centuries, from the period of Gaius 

 onward, when woman, at the height of Roman 

 civilization, having with the assistance of the legal 

 mind emerged from the restrictions of manus, 

 attained to a position of almost complete inde- 

 pendence and the equality of the sexes was assumed 

 by Roman jurisconsults as a fundamental principle 

 of equity. 



The same fact is to be witnessed strongly pre- 

 senting itself in various forms in modern times. 

 The violent dislike and distrust of woman shown 



