t something much more than
this--woman with all sides of her nature adequately worked upon and
fully developed.

Now, to look for a moment at the other side of the question. Woman has
been the cause of emotion in men, the fine instrument by which the
poet has sung and the musician played his exquisite music; the
sculptor, the painter, the writer, all have drawn their inspiration
from her. Have men, then, any right to pride themselves to such a
degree on their achievement in the arts? Could they without woman have
advanced anything like so far? And this becomes abundantly evident if
we look a little deeper and back to the beginning of the arts. "Not,"
writes Karl Buecher,[324] "upon the steep summits of society did poetry
originate, it sprang rather from the depths of the pure, strong soul
of the people. Women have striven to produce it, and as civilised man
owes to woman's work much the best of his possessions, so also are her
thoughts interwoven in the spiritual treasure handed down from
generation to generation."

A glance back at the beginnings of human civilisation show that women
were equal, if not superior, to men in productive poetic activity. To
a large extent men first learned from women the elements of the
various handicrafts. I have already referred to this fact in the
historical section, where we see the reasons whereby women lost their
early control over the industrial arts. I wish to refer to a point of
special importance now, which I find is brought forward, in this
connection, by Iwan Bloch.[325] In the start of the industrial
occupations, in sowing and thrashing and grinding the grain, in baking
bread, in the preparation of food and drinks, of wine and beer, in the
making of pots and baskets, and in spinning, the women worked
together; and, as is common still among primitive peoples, these
occupations were largely carried on in a rhythmical manner. From this
co-operation of the women it resulted that they were the first
creators of poetry and music. The men, on the other hand, hunted
singly in the forests. The birth of their poetic activity followed
only after they had monopolised the labours of material production.
Even to-day among many races the influence of woman's poetry can be
followed for a long way into the literary period. I have myself
witnessed something similar to this among the peasants in the rural
districts of Spain. I have heard women in the evenings relate to one
another and to their