FIRST. Woman in natural phys-ical strength is so greatly infe-rior to man that she is entirely in his power, quite incapable of self-defense, trusting to his gen-erosity for protection. In savage life this great superiority of phys-ical strength makes man the ab-solute master, woman the abject slave. And, although every suc-cessive step in civilisation lessens the distance between the sexes, and renders the situation of woman safer and easier, still, in no state of society, however highly culti-vated, has perfect equality yet ex-isted. This difference in physical strength must, in itself, always pre-vent such perfect equality, since