"Words and Signals" is a collection of speeches by Mayy, delivered on various occasions — a collection unique of its kind for the beauty of its style and its far-reaching aims; in it are revealed depth of inquiry and soundness of judgment.. Mayy's writing, taken as a whole, was a means of spreading goodness, truth, and virtue. In this collection is a speech she delivered at the Eastern Club in Cairo in 1912 on "Woman," in which her breadth of reading and her literary boldness — a boldness that compels admiration — are revealed to us. She refutes and criticizes the sayings of writers and philosophers — the likes of Voltaire, Plato, and Bossuet — who mocked woman and claimed she was fit only for domestic service and bodily adornment — and who said that she has no mind — and that learning destroys her faculties. She mounts a fierce campaign against these men, demonstrating that the backward-ness of half of humanity is due to woman's ignorance — and that there is no happiness for humanity except through her happiness.

And here is her reply to Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, who said: Woman was created from a superfluous rib in man's side; for this reason she is barren, with no intelligence in her mind and no understanding in her soul.

Mayy answers him:

"God's mercy upon you, Bossuet! You were not very astute! As for woman's being created from man's rib, that is a matter on which I have no opinion — except that I should prefer her to be created from the essence of his heart and his affections rather than to be a shapen 'cutlet.' And as for the rib's being superfluous, that is a debatable question; in any case I do not take it upon myself to establish this anatomical — or un-anatomical — question."

And although she holds that disparity among the social classes is necessary, she believes in the necessity of woman's equality with man in all the fields of life.

She is intensely optimistic about woman's possibilities, strong in her faith in the women's renais-sance and in the new woman, the

repository of the future's hopes; and she holds that woman's marvelous renaissance heralds great good. Among her sayings: "The lame civ-ilization of yesterday, which leaned upon only one of the two sexes, is other than the civilization of tomor-row, blessed with the fulfillment of hopes; for it is not the civilization of man alone, but the civilization of humanity."

And while we see her crying out to people, "Trust in woman's essence; trust the daughter of today and you will find the sons of tomorrow worthy of trust," we see her counseling women to hold fast to high morals and essential qualities, keeping far from vulgarity and ostentatious display, so that they may be in the right when defending their rights to freedom and to equality with man. At the end of her speech, after supporting her views with crushing arguments and shining proofs, we see her address-ing man with an unaccustomed frankness, in words that are lawful magic, entering the ears without