--accursed since the days of Eve--as a thing impure. The Virgin,
exalted as _Virgin_ more than as _Our Lady_, far from lifting up the
real woman, had caused her abasement, by setting men on the track of a
mere scholastic puritanism, where they kept rising higher and higher
in subtlety and falsehood.

Woman herself ended by sharing in the hateful prejudice and deeming
herself unclean. She hid herself at the hour of childbed. She blushed
at loving and bestowing happiness on others. Sober as she mostly was
in comparison with man, living as she mostly did on herbs and fruits,
sharing through her diet of milk and vegetables the purity of the most
innocent breeds, she almost besought forgiveness for being born, for
living, for carrying out the conditions of her life.

* * * * *

The medical art of the Middle Ages busied itself peculiarly about the
man, a being noble and pure, who alone could become a priest, alone
could make God at the altar. It also paid some attention to the
beasts, beginning indeed with them; but of children it thought seldom:
of women not at all.

The romances, too, with their subtleties pourtray the converse of the
world. Outside the courts and highborn adulterers, which form the
chief topic of these romances, the woman is always a poor Griselda,
born to drain the cup of suffering, to be often beaten, and never
cared for.

In order to mind the woman, to trample these usages under foot, and to
care for her in spite of herself, nothing less would serve than the
Devil, woman's old ally, her trusty friend in Paradise, and the Witch,
that monster who deals with everything the wrong way, exactly
contrariwise to that of the holier people. The poor creature set such
little store by herself. She would shrink back, blushing, and loth to
say a word. The Witch being clever and evil-hearted, read her to the
inmost depths. Ere long she won her to speak out, drew from her her
little secret, overcame her refusals, her modest, humble hesitations.
Rather than undergo the remedy, she was willing almost to die. But the
cruel sorceress made her live.

CHAPTER X.

CHARMS AND PHILTRES.

Let no one hastily conclude from the foregoing chapter that I attempt
to whiten, to acquit entirely, the dismal bride of the Devil. If she
often did good, she could also do no small amount of ill. There is no
great power which is not abused. And this one had three centuries of
actual reigning, i