inguished themselves by good and
heroic deeds. This has been aptly called "The Golden Book of
Heroines." It may certainly be considered her masterpiece on her
favourite subject. She urges that philosophers and poets, with one
accord, have defamed women, and she appeals to God, asking why such a
thing should be, seeing that He Himself made them and gave them such
inclinations as seemed good to Him, and that in no way could He err.
She maintains that God created the soul, and made it as good in woman
as in man, and that it is not the sex, but the perfection of virtue,
that is material. Combating the suggestion that women are not fit to
plead in Court because they have not sufficient intelligence to apply
the law when they have learnt it, she refers to history to prove that
women who have had the management of affairs have shown that, far from
lacking intelligence and judgment, they have possessed both in large
measure. At the same time, whilst defending their capability when
necessity arises, she does not think it necessary for women to
interfere in matters which seem essentially man's business. Her
remarks on the subject of marriage are certainly practical, and at the
same time disclose a strange unloveliness in contemporary manners. She
is not of St. Paul's opinion that it is better not to marry, but all
the same she suggests that, unless without means, that woman is
happier who does not marry a second time, seeing that the life of a
married woman is often worse than if she were in the hands of the
Saracens--the terror of the Middle Ages,--and that frequently after
her husband has been out enjoying himself, her only supper, on his
return, is a beating. She counsels the education of women, and
condemns those who suggest that this will conduce to unseemly ways. In
truth, her wonderful sense of justice, and her enlightened opinions
generally, make it a marvellous resume of statesmanship as far as it
goes. It is a real Utopia. Perhaps to Christine it was a glimpse of
the Promised Land! As we read her views on the education of boys and
girls together, in this happy city, we feel that she might be
discussing with us the problems of to-day. She says that if boys and
girls are taught the same subjects, girls can, as a rule, learn just
as well, and just as intelligently, as boys, and so on. In this
conclusion she forestalls the learned Cornelius Agrippa, a doctor and
philosopher of the sixteenth century, and one of the most origi