WOMAN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 1, 6 January 1909, Page 43

WOMAN.

DB. EMIL REICH TELLS HER HISTORY THROUGH THE AGES. In his new book. -Woman Through the Ages,” Dr. Reich quotes an American writer who says: -History is more than incidents; it is the movement of men.’’ Dr. Reich himself shows us that history is largely the movement of women. He begins with Egypt:— -Women, w’ith the Egyptians, occupied a well-defined, important, and high position. Religion largely influenced their I home life, for since their goddesses shared with the gods supreme power, so the 1 women were held to have the same equality with men in human affairs. . . . The child inherited and took the rank of its mother, irrespective of the status of the father.” Despite all this the Egyptian woman possessed familiar feminine weaknesses, and some unusual in modern times:— -The women of the better classes, who were exempt from toil and exposure, were all thus painted yellow, the tint getting paler as they rose in the social scale. And to the beauty of the skin was attached as much importance as to dress. Artificial means of painting and rouging were resorted to freely. the beauty of the skin being enhanced by the frequent use of oil and perfumes, in the preparation of which much ingenuity was exercised; parts of the body were even tattooed.’’ IN BABYLON. , The Babylonian woman was even more , fortunate than the Egyptian:— , -In these days of women’s rights and women’s demand for the franchise, it is , interesting to note the immense power held by women in Babylonia thirty centuries ago. The dowry system, which ■ gave the woman rights over her own property, and the great influence of wealth ' in the country, made of her an independent actor in her own affairs; and in the documents that have come down to us we i find married women transacting business . which in modern states comes mainly . within the province of men. We find [ them selling their own property, entering , into partnership and trade, conducting ’ lawsuits even against their own husbands . for the unauthorised disposal of their I property, and mulcting them in dam- - ages; they are also parties to the lending 5 of'money and to the purchase of slaves. In fact, in all matters of business rights there would appear to be no difference between tho men and the women in the eyes of tho law.” s The Greek women about whom Dr. > Reich naturally has much to say, was in a a well-defined inferior position. The fol-

owing indawte# th? windom—and ths jtmml furtune-Lct th»* male Greek - -Silen<* at ai! times, whether in or »ut 01 the hnu»e. wm considered the duty ti a woman: /u«i not only waa »he ex>ected to keep silence herarlf. but she All also expected <0 conduct herself in •uch a way that no one else could e-peak tbout her.’** IN ROME. As m Greece, so in Rome: — ‘ From tiie very beginning Rome war a mans State. Early Roman law and custom placed women in a position in which, in >pite of the gradual relaxation of legal restrictions, the steady growth of the imperial idea forced them to remain. In the family the Roman woman was a very minor factor. All children, male and female, were equally : ibject to the paternal will, but the position of daughters was more galling than that of sons, inasmuch as the.ir freedom of action was considerably less, and acts which were permitted to a sou were regarded as crimes when committed by a daughter. A single instance will suffice to illustrate this. It was enough for a Xvoman to have tasted wine to l»e held worthy of death: and. if we believe iertullian. the Romans first resorted to kissingin order that they might the more easily detect their women folk in such lapses from strict virtue. ’ Of course, both in Greece and Roma woman placed a great part, making history f often by her vices as her virtues. Byzantine women, mediaeval women in cloisters and in the world, and the women 01 the Renaissance are all described. Here is an interesting picture of middleclass life in the Middle Ages: — •‘The burgher woman was ill-educated and violent in temper, uncouth in manners. and foul of speech. She tried to tyrannise over her husband, and would beat him when she could, being often, in her turn, soundly belaboured. She was probably a better housewife than w<e usually see out of France to-day. understood her husband’s business, managed it in many cases for him. and could drink nearly as hard as he. For the tavern was the resort of the respectable goodwife just as much as of her mate, and to that she went on her way to and from church or when marketing. In fact, it was her house of call, the place where the gossip of the town was discussed.” IN ENGLAND. Two chapters are devoted to the Englishwomen of the Tudor and Stuart periods. and two to the French women or the Courts of Louis NIX’, and Louis XV. Of the gorgeous days of the -Grand Monarque” Dr. Reich says: — “In contrast to the lavish bathing of the earlier Middle Ages, just a& may be noted in th? Court of th? English Restoration at Whitehall, so at Versailles the student feels that cleanliness was as remote as godliness, though the salle de toilette was as ostentatious as the chapel; and if sometimes gentlemen of France were ruined by the cost of the clothes their wives wore, ami if the mistresses appeared in superb costume, dirt, moth, and discomfort, proceeding fnom personal negligence of what was not visible, form undoubted and ugly features of the scene.” The salons are given a chapter to themselves: — “The saion of 1730 was domestic and rather dull. That of 1760 was gay. noisy,

and delightfully heartless. That of 1780 was more pessimistic, more grave, and .when there was laughter it was “au bout des dents.” The salon under Louis XIV. was a symbol of the past.*that of Louis XV. of the present, that of Louis XVI-

ol the. future.” Dr. Reich is always outspoken and often caustic. Here are two examples: — “To turn to the English woman of the eighteenth century after contemplating her French sister of the same period is like eating a penny bun after enjoying a delicate eclair. The one was provincially insular and narrow-minded, whereas the other was deliyious, vivacious, and almost too broad in her views.” And of the modern American women he says: — "There are over twehe million pianos in American houses, used mostly by women: yet there is not a single American pianiste of even the third order. There are thousands of schools for American women, yet there is not a single American woman of note as a scholar. The last word then in American womanhood is this, that they represent actually what the ancient Greek myths (if myths they be) represented symbolically—a realm of Amazons grafted upon a. realm nf men.” It is a wondrous array that passes through Dr. Reich’s pages: Agrippina and Jeanne d’Albert. Queen Anne and. Aspasia, Mrs Browning and Lucrezia Borgia. Joan of Arc. and Messalina, Mme. Recamier and Charlotte Bronte, St. Teresa and Mme. de Stael.