misunderstand me. You did
not seem shocked when I told you that there were no law-courts to enforce
contracts of sentiment or passion; but so curiously are men made, that perhaps
you will be shocked when I tell you that there is no code of public opinion
which takes the place of such courts, and which might be as tyrannical and
unreasonable as they were. I do not say that people don't judge their
neighbours' conduct, sometimes, doubtless, unfairly. But I do say that there is
no unvarying conventional set of rules by which people are judged; no bed of
Procrustes to stretch or cramp their minds and lives; no hypocritical
excommunication which people are forced to pronounce, either by unconsidered
habit, or by the unexpressed threat of the lesser interdict if they are lax in
their hypocrisy. Are you shocked now?«
    »N-o - no,« said I, with some hesitation. »It is all so different.«
    »At any rate,« said he, »one thing I think I can answer for: whatever
sentiment there is, it is real - and general; it is not confined to people very
specially refined. I am also pretty sure, as I hinted to you just now, that
there is not by a great way as much suffering involved in these matters either
to men or to women as there used to be. But excuse me for being so prolix on
this question! You know you asked to be treated like a being from another
planet.«
    »Indeed I thank you very much,« said I. »Now may I ask you about the
position of women in your society?«
    He laughed very heartily for a man of his years, and said: »It is not
without reason that I have got a reputation as a careful student of history. I
believe I really do understand the Emancipation of Women movement of the
nineteenth century. I doubt if any other man now alive does.«
    »Well?« said I, a little bit nettled by his merriment.
    »Well,« said he, »of course you will see that all that is a dead controversy
now. The men have no longer any opportunity of tyrannising over the women, or
the women over the men; both of which things took place in those old times. The
women do what they can do best, and what they like best, and the men are neither
jealous of it or injured by it. This is such a commonplace that I am almost
ashamed to state it.«
    I said, »O; and