these sublime intellects rose a young girl, twenty years old,
pure, radiantly beautiful, who modestly said to them:

'Please make room for me--hear me. I want my place in the glorious sun.'

She ascended the famous chair and began to explain before an
enthusiastic crowd the works of Plato and Aristotle. Her talent, her
learning, her eloquence astonished the people who thronged to hear young
and fair Hypatia, daughter of Theo.

Now, do you believe that all those learned, bearded philosophers and
theologians encouraged her, applauded her? No. History tells us they lay
in wait in a street where she used to pass, and when she appeared in her
chariot, resplendent with youth, beauty, and glory, acclaimed by the
crowd, they--St. Cyril and his companions--seized her, killed her, cut
her body in hundreds of pieces, which they threw to the four winds of
the earth.

Now, modern Hypatias are not treated quite so roughly by men, who
content themselves with turning them to ridicule, although I have heard
of some who did not hesitate in disposing of successful women's
reputations as the learned doctors of Alexandria disposed of the body of
Hypatia.

Women, perhaps unfortunately, cannot all be intended to be mothers, or
spend their lives mending socks and attending to spring house-cleaning.
Such women, who have received a high education, may not feel inclined to
be shop-girls, ladies'-maids, or cooks. If they feel that they have
talent, and can paint or write successfully, every man ought to give
them a helping hand.

CHAPTER XXXI

A PLEA FOR THE WORKING WOMAN

'There are too many men in the world,' once exclaimed H. Taine. This
was only a joke, but there is a great deal of truth in it. There are,
in France especially, far too many men engaged in official Government
offices, in professional occupations, and in stores; too many doctors
without patients; too many lawyers without briefs; too many
functionaries, each doing little or nothing, and the others seeing that
he does it; too many men in stores showing women dresses, silks, and
gloves.

And the woman hater exclaimed: 'No wonder men cannot find a living to
make; all the occupations that once were filled by men are now
monopolized by women. The hearth is deserted, the street crowded--that's
the triumph of modern feminism.'

On the other hand some feminists, more royalist than the King, exclaim:
'Woman should be kept in clover, the protegee of humanity, and never