298 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



commencement. The further it goes, the further it approaches 

 anarchy, impoverishment, and barbarism. 



At various times, in primitive society, in ancient Egypt, and in 

 the Roman Empire, when women have possessed the forces which 

 were efficient in the society, they have had dominion over men. 

 They abused the power when they had it, too. At other times 

 the subjection of women has been due to the fact that they have 

 needed protection. They did not possess the forces which, at the 

 time, were required for self-defense in the society. Since they 

 accepted protection, they could not be free. When they fell into 

 dependence, they could hot be independent. If they could claim 

 protection, and at the same time dominion, they would be privi- 

 leged ; and any one who enjoys privilege, which some one else has 

 to furnish, is of course superior. Hence, there are three positions 

 only in social relations : servitude with inferiority, privilege with 

 superiority, and a middle state of neither, with equality. 



Peasant proprietors turn into colons and serfs through mis- 

 ery.* They abandon personal liberty in order to get protection, 

 and they accept servitude to get security, because they find that 

 they have not enough of the force which prevails in the society to 

 defend themselves. Their lords maintain superiority and exact 

 for themselves social privilege. Such was the course of things at 

 the downfall of the Roman Empire. When things began to im- 

 prove in western Europe, the slave thought that it was com- 

 parative freedom when he was bound to the soil, because his 

 family could not be separated, and he could not be removed from 

 his home. A villain, however, would have thought it slavery to 

 be reduced to the status of the serf, with unlimited servitudes to 

 render. The serf, in his turn, thought it immeasurable gain to 

 get his servitudes made definite, although a free man would have 

 thought it slavery to be reduced to villainage. A villain could not 

 go if he wanted to, but he could not be evicted if any one wanted 

 to send him away. A free man can go if he wants to, and may 

 be evicted if the other party chooses. At what point does the 

 servitude of the villain, who must stay and work and pay feudal 

 dues, turn into the blessing of the free tenant, who has fixity of 

 tenure, but works and enjoys, subject to taxes ? Evidently it is at 

 that point where the rights and benefits of holding and using 

 become equal to the burdens and duties of taking and using — 

 always with reference to the comparative value of other chances 

 which present themselves. If a villain wants to stay, it is a privi- 

 lege that no one can evict him ; if he wants to go, it is a servitude 

 that some one can retain him. If the landlord wants to force 

 tenants to stay and till his land, it is a privilege for him to be able 



* This is a disputed point, on which a great deal has been written, with very great 

 divergence of opinion. The above seems to me to be the best opinion. 



