(ATUEALLY, a work of this kind must be abridged. When woman started from her ancient bondage for modern freedom, she hit a long trail. I shall try to blaze that trail. She has been on the way some time, but she never knew where she was going nobody does. Progress has no ultimate goal it can 't have. It has an instinct. It is a wanderer. It passes through successive zones that are repeated. They can not be infinite in number and diversity, because being is limited in its reactions. There is not even conception of infinity. Being is necessarily provincial. It is characterized by its surround- ings. Cosmic consciousness is an idea. God is hope. Immortality is a dream. Is there truth in the idea? Is there reality in the hope? Is there prophecy in the dream? No one knows. The very soul of our race is dumb, or, at best, inarticulate in its cries and vague in its longings. In the long run, progress may be like a dog chasing his tail. Activity is good for the dog even if he misses the rabbit; but if we assume ix X PREFACE that he will catch the rabbit, what then? Shall he stop, or catch another and another forever and ever! Still, if progress turns out to be only a movement with an active instinct, I like to think that the instinct makes for well-being. The bewildering fact is that it doesn't. For nothing so bedevils us as that which we call progress. Let us say then that bedevilment is good (for the soul) since we can not abate it. Let us go in for progress, as everybody does. Here the trouble begins. Each knows the road that all the world should take, but no two roads are alike. I see one that looks prom- ising. It seems to be a continuation of the trail, leading to broader human rights from the narrower rights of sex or class. This road passes I hope to an equal spiritual dignity of manhood and womanhood, opening up the pos- sibilities of human nature through orderly activity. Of course, no wise woman travels alone if she can help it. Nature loves nothing better than mating. Nature is hard-headed. According to her, almost any kind of a mate is better than none. In general, her children obey her, in one way or another. Those who do not obey the mother are weaned before it is good for them; that is to say, they are runted out of existence. So we find that woman in her trail from relative bondage to comparative freedom had PEEFACE XI company all along. She was both helped and hindered by her companion ; but she was helped more than hindered, because her very hindrance often was a help. At all events, a stage has been reached where no one doubts the desirability of equal oppor- tunity and equal responsibility of men and women under the law ; and nobody should ques- tion the wisdom of their equal moral obligations to society, on given conditions. There also is common agreement on the right to freedom of speech within the limits of decency, regardless of sex ; and no one now who loathes caste doubts the fitness of women for full citizenship with men.