IN All Ages and Nations; A COMPLETE AND AUTHENTIO HISTORY OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, CHARACTER AND CON FROM THE EARLIEST AGES TO THE PRESENT TIME. Soc 4848.8 HARVARD Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, for the EDITOR'S PREFACE. 1 IT has fallen to my lot to edit a new edition of this excellent work upon the history, the present condition, and the future destiny of Woman. This happens in the prosecution of a design I have formed to aggregate and issue, from time to time, through the efficient instrumentality of Messrs. Fowlers and Wells as publishers, such contribution as I may, to a kind of Library of Social Science, which shall be, in reference to the healthful relations of human beings to each other in society, what the numerous recent and valuable works upon Physiology are with reference to the health and well-being of the individual man. My own works on "The True Constitution of Government," and "Cost the Limit of Price," and that of JOSIAH WARREN on " Equitable Commerce," recently published by Messrs. Fowlers and Wells, under the general title of "The Science of Society," are historically first upon the list of this collection. Other works, from the pens of both the last named writers, will appear from time to time. I am now happy to be able to add "Woman in All Ages and Nations," by DR. THOMAS L. NICHOLS an author, whose clearness of intellect, whose purity of style, and whose broad humanitary sympathies and catholic toleration, render his writings alike fascinating and informatory. The graceful intermingling of the most interesting facts of history upon the most interesting of all subjects, with a deep insight into principles and and philosophy, which characterize the present work, impart to it a charm which will insure its earnest perusal by all classes of persons. It remains merely to point out those features which relate it especially to Sociology or the Science of Society, and to utter a word of criticism upon some of the statements, which discoveries in that most interesting field of investigation, recently announced, show to be, in some measure, erroneous. The attributes, appropriate sphere, and true destiny of Woman constitute, for two reasons, the culminating point in social philosophy; first, because all these are inextricably connected with the fate of children, and hence with the destiny of the whole race; and secondly, because Woman being the weaker, in the grosser significance of strength, and at the same time the more refined and the more spiritual element of human society, her rise in the relative scale of being, marks and measures exactly the growing supremacy of the higher over the inferior faculties in man. The installation of woman into her appropriate and God-intended relations with the whole human family, as an integral individual being-not the mere dependent and complement of the existence of another, will, for these reasons, place the seal of finality upon the present world-movement of radical reform. Hence, to understand the true sphere of Woman is to understand the whole circle of what relates to equity, and order, and freedom, and beauty in the constitution of human affairs; just as a knowledge of the right collocation of the keystone of an arch involves and implies a knowledge of the whole philosophy of the arch itself. Woman's rights, rightly understood, are, then, the epitome of all rights, and her wrongs but the highest expression of the general wrong and outrage inflicted upon humanity. Her rights will yet be understood to mean something far more significant than the exercise of the elective franchise, and her wrongs to be more grievous offences against her nature than exclusion from the military, or political, or ecclesiastical honors, which are monopolized by the other sex. Modern reform has made its gradual approaches toward the central fortress of conservatism, which environs the character and functions of Woman, and has halted to take breath before the final onset. The last word upon this subject has seldom been uttered, and when it has, it has been in an undertone of dread at the reverberation of the voice which produced it. Timidity is about to be changed into the boldness of confidence in well considered and undeniable truth. The conflict may be short or long, but it is imminent and inevitable. It behooves those who would defend, as well as those who would assail, to be aware of the fact, and of the true nature of the case. This work of DR. NICHOLS was written and published several years since, though never brought so prominently before the public as its high appreciation among those few who are acquainted with it, and the substantial reputation of the author, would seem to demand. The work itself, notwithstanding the threatening nature of this preface, has in it nothing alarming to the most fastidious. It is a simple history, as its name implies, of the Condition of Woman in all Ages and Nations, heretofore and now, with an aspiration after and a prophetic foreshadowing of her higher and happier destiny in the future. The facts are, for the most part, stated without comment, and where comments are added, they are unusually free from the taint of parti zanship or fanaticism. A picture is laid before the mind of the reader for his or her own contemplation and improvement. Nor is it my purpose to make any other use of the book than that for which it was intended. I do not assume the right of committing the author to any of my individual conclusions, such as have been and will be more fully stated in my own publications, beyond what he may have announced or may choose to announce for himself. I have selected it as a work eminently calculated to enlarge and liberalize the mind of the reader in relation to all questions touching the position of Woman, simply by storing him with information, and preparing him to judge impartially of any and all theories relating to the subject. The perusal of it will be the next thing to a world-wide travel and personal familiarity with the manners and customs, the prejudices and predilections of all people upon a matter most intimately connected with their social and internal life. The last chapter, which glances with a hopeful vision at the dawn of a brighter future, will be especially interesting to all with whom Woman is an object of interest. It is upon this latter subject that I have a slight word of criticism to offer. At the 234th page occurs the following paragraph: "In the economies of an harmonious organization of society, men will be able to dispense with the vast, costly, and cumbersome machinery of trade. The exchanges of commerce will be managed but by a few individuals, and without the vices of competition. Our whole system of retail commerce is beginning to totter already, and cannot last a day after men understand their true interests, and combine together to secure them. This will stop another heavy drain on industry, and increase the productive strength and useful intelligence of society. Beside this, there are thousands of discontented hangers on, who will find some sphere of usefulness in a society where all honor, consideration, reputation, and enjoyment, will depend on use." These and some similar phrases occur elsewhere, which, to one acquainted with the technology of Social Science, rather than to the common reader, indicate that the author, at the time of writing this work, looked for the remedy of our existing social evils-to combination, technically so called; that is, to joint-stock associations of some sort, more or less extended, involving a unity of administration in the property and industrial relations of a Community. I am perhaps overstepping the bounds of legitimate criticism, by dragging to the light a feature which the author has chosen rather to conceal than to render prominent, and which appears, more despite his caution, than in accordance with his design. My apology must be the desire I have to make for myself an occasion for drawing the attention of the reader, in this connection, to the existence of certain other principles of Social Reform, more recently announced, and by means of which all the harmonious and beautiful results forshadowed in the last chapter of this |