up to the present time, are deprived of their natural rights and
privileges by the laws of our own and other countries, professedly
civilized, enlightened, and Christian. While, therefore, the injustice
suffered, both in the past and the present, by women, will be briefly
presented in the following pages, there is still no wish to deprive the
"lords of creation" of any really God-appointed privilege. But should we
happen to come in contact with the selfishness and the usurped
prerogatives of men, we will not hesitate to expose what we conceive to
be grievous wrongs, because of their antiquity.

There is no human tie so sacred as that of marriage; and yet there is
no covenant so generally violated in some way or other by many of the
contracting parties. The alliance, it is true, may be continued, and
even observed, so far as the letter is concerned. But what of the
spirit? When once true confidence is lost, the sublime and exalted
character of the relation is destroyed. There is no longer any genuine
affection, or real union of heart, between the parties. Nothing will
destroy mutual confidence between two parties sooner than an arrogant
assumption by one of them of fancied superiority over the other.
Self-respect is an inherent principle in human nature. The mind of
prince and peasant is alike actuated by it, and by an instinctive desire
for freedom and independence of action, for the advantages of civil and
religious liberty, and for the exercise of individual rights; and this
instinctive desire is no less strong in the hearts of women than of
men. It is impossible for a woman of proper discernment, and of refined
taste and liberal education, to consider herself, simply because of her
sex, inferior to her own male relatives, or indeed to any one of the
opposite sex, of the same intellectual powers, literary attainments, and
position in society. Nothing but the influence of a misdirected or
perverted education, or the most extreme degradation and ignorance, can