They were counted for nothing, but without them everything would have
been broken.
A married woman, then, in France presents the spectacle of a queen out
at service, of a slave, at once free and a prisoner; a collision
between these two principles which frequently occurred, produced odd
situations by the thousand. And then, woman was physically little
understood, and what was actually sickness in her, was considered a
prodigy, witchcraft or monstrous turpitude. In those days these
creatures, treated by the law as reckless children, and put under
guardianship, were by the manners of the time deified and adored. Like
the freedmen of emperors, they disposed of crowns, they decided
battles, they awarded fortunes, they inspired crimes and revolutions,
wonderful acts of virtue, by the mere flash of their glances, and yet
they possessed nothing and were not even possessors of themselves.
They were equally fortunate and unfortunate. Armed with their weakness
and strong in instinct, they launched out far beyond the sphere which
the law allotted them, showing themselves omnipotent for evil, but
impotent for good; without merit in the virtues that were imposed upon
them, without excuse in their vices; accused of ignorance and yet
denied an education; neither altogether mothers nor altogether wives.
Pages:
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165