There were, however, as we can clearly see, traditions and customs, taboos and permitted familiarities so many and varied that old women with good memories and a personality that commanded attention must have had some accepted value within the inner circles of family experience.

We get from folk-lore some clear intimations of this prestige and power of the ancient old woman in intimate social relationship.
The power of old men received a great accession when political and religious orders and legal rules began to make social organization more definite and precise.

"Old men for council; young men for war" had an early meaning.

"The venerable Senate" is not a modern phrase.
The "reverend father of the church" is an ancient allusion to the respect for and leadership of the aged in religious circles.

The Popes of to-day begin their high service at an age that is in many positions a "dead line." The hardening of the social arteries in religion, government, politics, and law, however, while making old men more sure of their place in life, made old women less valued and worse treated.
The ages of mediaeval experience and of the feudal order, until chivalry began to affect the sex-relation, show almost unbelievable cruelty toward many aged women.