Here is history, refusing all but to poke its nose into everything and thrust its finger into every matter, casting a brilliant light upon what we call events, bringing them forth plain and established, so that the human mind is compelled to believe them, since this history supports them with its shining arguments and its manifest proofs. It confirms whatever of them has been shaken and displays them on the screen of truth, clear and distinct.

Let us return now to that far-off age, the age of the creation of the father of mankind and his fashion-ing from clay. No sooner had the spirit stirred in Adam's body than he sprang upright, looking to the right and to the left as though searching for something lost that had possessed his senses, with two questioning eyes, awe having tied his tongue, so that the lines of his face spoke what was hidden in his heart.

What can he want... and what can he wish... He is perplexed, questioning; he finds a lack in himself, a lack in his spirit, a lack in his inner being... And it was as though Divine Providence, having read his secrets and understood his intentions, refused to prolong his anguish; it showered its blessings upon him, eased his soul of its perplexity, and filled that void in his heart. And behold, Eve was at his side. Now the necklace of the universe was strung complete: Eve came, that wondrous completing half, to restore him to eternal life.

Poor Eve... She is weaker than Adam in frame and less than he in strength; by nature's decree she submits to his will and yields, content, to his pleasure. Thy mercy, O God, upon her! Shall this weak one live a captive to that tyrannical oppressor, with no power and no strength...

But God, who is the most just of the just and the most merciful of the merciful, refused to strip her of every weapon with which to defend herself. He compensated her for Adam's strength and might with two contradictory qualities by which she prevailed over man: by the first she rises to the ranks of the angels, and by the second she sinks to the depths of the devils. She is an occasion of bliss or a deadly spring of hell; by her, nations rise

to the summit of glory, and by her, peoples plunge shattered upon the shore of extinction. She is an angel if she wills, or a devil if she chooses.

Is woman not a gracious angel when her husband finds rest and tranquility at her side... when she

consoles his soul... and lightens his care, and drives away his sorrow in his hours of misery and pain... Is she not a merciful angel and a faithful servant when she sacrifices her rest and her comfort for the sake of the wounded and the sick... Is she not a gracious angel and a wise master when she gives her pupils to drink of the essence of her heart and the ether of her spirit... She is all that — nay, above all that.

That gentle angel suckles her sons on noble qualities together with the milk, lulls them with the melodies of true patriotism, and gives them to drink of noble morals and virtues; she lights the darkness of their minds with luminous opinions and upright guidance, and illumines their paths with the lamp of right guidance and virtue; so they walk in the arena of that world with deliberate, steady steps in the shel-ter of that angel, merciful to her children, faithful to their interests, who guided their steps, enlightened their minds, and refined their morals. And who is better than that mother who raises up this nation...

Or is not the one derived from the other?.. How many kingdoms has she raised up, and how many crowns have been shattered at her

feet; how many fortresses have been razed for her sake, and how many thrones have toppled because of her..

Behold, the gentle lamb has begun to lead that ravening lion; behold, this weak one has become the guide of that strong man, who has begun to follow her guidance and take light from her light, and to build upon her firm foundations that glory by which he consolidated the pillars of his nation and his homeland. She was the foundation and he the building; she the spirit and he the body; she the truth and he the statue. But among the strangest things ever heard is that this ungrateful one, no sooner did he see his stem harden and his arm grow strong, than he began to deny her merit and disown her, denying what she is owed by him — she who fashioned him into a righteous human being. He strips her of her competence, for matters he imagined were reserved to him and not to her; he monopolized them, and was selfish to an unreasonable degree, and proclaimed before all witnesses that she is fit neither for government nor for justice, and that she has no right to vote in governmental elections — she who gave birth to those rulers, raised up those judges, and formed those ministers.

Zenobia, Joan of Arc, and al-Khansa display that intellectual superiority, that political and military management, and that patriotism which history has recorded for them in letters of light upon its pages, proving in woman — in that merciful angel and that gentle lamb — the cunning of the most cunning, the strength of valor, and the greatness of the great. And say nothing of that in which woman excels: instinctive gentleness, ample resourcefulness, beautiful patience, forbearance, and long endurance. That weak angel exerts upon this universe what influence she will: she steers it in her own way, stamps it with her stamp, and plays it upon her fingers, so that kings bow their heads to her in homage and scholars bend before her in respect...

Here is woman, truly guided toward perfection.. here is that eternal lamp that directs the world toward loftiness and righteousness; here is that pure angel and that