preconceived premises; some again may appear too fanciful, too theoretical to be taken seriously or practically, but we must bear in mind, that many, even at the beginning of this century of the stupendous wonders of scientific discovery, were undreamt of, and would have been considered as impossible by our grand-parents, yet are now household words in every home, and every-day facts no one has the folly to dispute.

Pioneers into every field of unexplored knowledge there must be, and as the sphere of actual discovery extends, we may be certain many time-worn, time-honoured prejudices and conventional theories will be superseded by views of wider breadth and greater justice and charity.

And among the obsolete fallacies of the past, none will die so hard a death as men's stereotyped opinion of women. Yet are women equal members with men of the human race, and "much more, those members of the body which seem to be the most feeble are necessary" (1 Cor. xii. 22).

On the lonely rock in the Ægean Sea the beloved Apostle saw in a vision the four stages of humanity in adoration before the Throne of God.

Of those four living creatures, the first was like unto a lion; thus signifying the animal nature of man, the reign of brute force and strength, the domination of purely virile qualities and virtues, untamed and insubordinate. Yet, "the fierceness of man shall be turned to Thy praise."

The second living creature was in the similitude of a calf, undeveloped, mild, feeble, submissive, relying on the functions of maternity for life and nourishment, assimilative, receptive, dependent; plainly pourtraying the dual nature of man, the development of the feminine factor the complement to the masculine, and upon which evolution humanity is only just entering, and of which man only partially realises the importance and significance. His future progress depends on the cultivation of the feminine virtues, on a return to the innocence and dependence of infancy, a reliance on things unseen, not to be comprehended, felt, and handled, on the willing faith and trustful love of childhood, the adaptability and receptivity of the youthful spirit, the subjection of the individual will to the welfare of the universal brother- and sister-hood, the practical bearing of one another's burdens.

"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. xviii. 3).

"Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts" (Isa. xxviii. 9). "The third creature had a face as of a man."

Here the perfected mortal being, fully developed in the dual nature of maleness and femaleness, having risen above brutish animality, having put away childish things—physically, intellectually, morally "very good" in the verdict of the Maker has attained to the measure of the stature of Christ, in the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.

"And the fourth creature was like a flying eagle."

Surely here is foreshadowed man's highest destiny, the consummation of the human ideal, when the mortal, having put on immortality, and the corruptible earthly body having changed to the glorified spiritual body, mounts "up with wings like eagles," knowing all in the fruition of faith, purified by love, and sanctified through service, into the light of the Eternal day.

PART II

WOMAN'S PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

It is very remarkable, that when we study the psychological attributes of women, i.e., the virtues and mental traits that by common consent are distinguished as especially feminine from those essentially masculine, we find the chief qualities, that are now regarded as the greatest determining factors, in the higher civilisation and moral evolution of mankind.

In the old order of the world, the masculine virtues were unduly exalted of necessity, by the existing conditions of social life. The chief, the husband, the father, who by his individuality, his strength, courage, energy, and self-reliance, consolidated the tribe, defended the wife, and supported the family, was naturally considered superior to his submissive and dependent help-meets, their gentle, unobtrusive domestic virtues being overlooked and under-valued in the stern struggle for existence. Paganism also, in the height of its civilisation, ever exalted the male type of excellence, to the prejudice of the female, and rarely recognised an equality between the sexes. It was reserved for Christianity to exalt both to an equal standard of dignity and perfection. Christianity was the great lever in the history of man's ethical evolution for the elevation of the woman, by reversing the order of human virtues, and placing those that had, in the world's opinion, been considered of supreme importance last, in the catalogue of attributes upon which the Christian character was henceforth to be founded. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, faith were to take precedence of mere brute courage, of selfassertion, of emulation, self-seeking, self-gratification, selfaggrandisement. The sword of conquest was to give place to the cross of service. Social regeneration was heralded by Christ, not by enlisting in His ranks "the upper and stronger side of human life, but the under and the weaker

side, not the proud but the suffering side," the poor and despised, that had no helper. Man's moral development was to be effected through agents, which he by nature contemned; the foolish things of the world were to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to bring to naught the things that were mighty. And if one looks back to those lurid pages of history, and studies the condition of women at that period, what state could be more pitiable, more abject, more degraded? The plaything, sport, and dupe of man. The slave to his passions, the minister to his wants, the bearer of his burdens. This abject subjection of women had moreover reacted most deleteriously upon the moral and social advancement of men themselves. Heathen civilisation was fast degenerating into the vilest depths of misery, vice, and corruption.

The whole social body was sick unto death, awaiting with its last breath some sovereign remedy. Hellenism had failed to make man moral. It appealed irresistibly to the senses and to the intellect of man; it raised the former into a worship of the Beautiful; it opened out to the latter new paths of knowledge and philosophy; it developed the brain but not the heart; it was culture from without, influencing the physical and material nature, but not the awakening of the spirit of man which would make for righteousness. The higher moral level of which humanity is capable was never even attempted to be gained in a practical form by the ancient Greek or Roman. Their philosophers spoke indeed of the virtues of truth, magnanimity, endurance, and justice, but they preached to deaf ears of the beauty of purity; the motive power within being lacking to drive or persuade men to make any radical change in their own lives, necessitating self-control and self-discipline. In fact, men hardly realised the need of any restraints on sexual relations, nor, as far as they themselves were concerned, had a glimmering of what sexual morality included. The social evils in Greece and Rome were at their height at the period of the greatest culture. The development of the intellect had achieved nothing towards the amelioration of the common lot of humanity; it had not loosened a single fetter, or opened the door of hope to a single captive. It had not touched the moral sense of man, without which any true betterment of the race was futile. Art, science, and philosophy had, as it were, tried their hands at bringing forth the ideal mortal, and

had abjectly failed. They had made no appeal directly to the spiritual consciousness inherent in humanity, though often overlaid and stifled by gross materialism and sensual indulgence. They had moreover, one and all, systematically ignored the co-operation of the female element in the composition of the race. Men had kept the balance of power heavily weighted on their own side. They had decided that there was one supreme factor in the human race, and that incontestibly was man himself. The feminine unit was as if nonexistent, except so far as it could be rendered subservient to male exactions.

Yet men prided themselves on their wisdom and their justice. They were, however, their own appraisers. had been, of set purpose, rendered incapable of being competent judges of the truth of the one assertion, and had had no individual experience of the reality of the other, as justice to womanhood was as yet an unknown quantity in the sum of masculine virtues. Not only therefore was man's moral evolution abnormally slow, but it absolutely appeared to retrogress; the fight between the higher and the lower nature seemed leaning towards the ultimate victory of evil, instead of the triumph of the human over the animal. But how could that supreme culmination be gained, when women were regarded as chattels, as mere instruments for men's lusts; when the courtesan was more honoured than the wife ; when polygamy was considered the best condition of marriage; when concubinage, prostitution, and fornication were regarded as necessary adjuncts of social life, and sexual indulgence was designated the strongest instinct of nature, uncontrollable and insatiable? The wife of any or of many, as the case might be, brought forth children steeped in sensuality from their birth, verily born in the throes of impurity and sin. What high moral aspirations, attributes, or virtues could be the hereditary foundation of character in the son of the courtesan ? What gifts of continence, self-discipline, and purity could the owner of a thousand sexual slaves bequeath to his offspring? No! men could not attain to the highest and the best, for they were one and all sons of the bond women and not of the free. They had enslaved their womankind, and remained in moral and spiritual bondage themselves.

But in the strange new gospel of the Nazarene there was heralded an era of emancipation, of equality, of mutual rela