era. Various causes brought about a partial liberty for women, in both
the Jewish and Roman nations, prior to the birth of Christ; but for
those of other lands the blackness of darkness still remained. It was
but a partial liberty, it is true, even for the Hebrew or Roman women,
but their condition was much improved. Concessions had been made slowly.
They had come in shreds, and had not amounted to much in ameliorating
their situation when they came; but slight as were the privileges
yielded, they were yet indications of the dawning of a brighter day for
Eve's poor daughters.

The reformations effected were like wresting prey from the mighty. And
how could it be otherwise, with selfishness and love of power, sustained
by unjust and one-sided laws, arrayed against merely natural rights--not
demanded, scarcely even asserted--and those to whom these rights
belonged excluded from every position where they might hope to do either
the one or the other successfully? The law of divorce was still common;
and, like every thing else where the sexes were concerned, all the
advantages were on the side of the oppressor, man.

The laws of the Romans, though according a greater degree of freedom to
woman than had hitherto been granted, were still not only imperfect, but
were not properly carried out, in many instances, where it suited venal
judges to side with wealthy libertines who might have it in their power
to bestow a favor. Professedly, each Roman had but one wife; but
divorces, on most frivolous pretexts, were of frequent occurrence,
granted in favor of one who wished to gratify his licentious passions
without rebuke. Slavery was yet in force; and it gave ample opportunity
for the practice of this injustice, even upon the free-born Roman woman.
Every true Roman held his wife's or his daughter's honor sacred, and
would resent to the death any attempt to violate it; but, by the