Those not having time to read all the books can confine their labors
to the particular ones they propose to review.

It is thought best to publish the different parts as soon as prepared
so that the Committee may have all in print in a compact form before
the final revision.



E. C. S.

August 1st, 1895.





INTRODUCTION.


From the inauguration of the movement for woman's emancipation the
Bible has been used to hold her in the "divinely ordained sphere,"
prescribed in the Old and New Testaments.

The canon and civil law; church and state; priests and legislators;
all political parties and religious denominations have alike taught
that woman was made after man, of man, and for man, an inferior being,
subject to man. Creeds, codes, Scriptures and statutes, are all based
on this idea. The fashions, forms, ceremonies and customs of society,