It is that the sphere and destiny of women are among the three or four foremost questions in social improvement.

This is now perceived on all sides, profound as are the differences of opinion upon the proper solution of the problem.

A hundred years ago this perception was vague and indefinite, but there was an unmistakable apprehension that the Catholic ideal of womanhood was no more adequate to the facts of life, than Catholic views about science, or property, or labour, or political order and authority.
Diderot has left some curious and striking reflections upon the fate and character of women.

He gives no signs of feeling after social reorganisation; he only speaks as one brooding in uneasy meditation over a very mournful perplexity.

There is no sentimentalising, after the fashion of Jean Jacques.