[32] Of course, I do not mean to be understood here as objecting to
any temperate and earnest attempt by men or women to _amend law_.
[33] It will easily be conjectured that I do not feel competent to
treat the great subject of Roman legislation for women, in the noble
and extended manner which is at once, as it seems to me, necessary and
possible. Perhaps I shall never become so.
It seems to me proper, however, that I should indicate my
dissatisfaction with existing methods in the clearest manner, and drop
a few hints, as I do in the text, as to the difficulties in the way.
Roman sepulchral inscriptions, of the era generally considered the
most licentious, bear witness in the fullest manner to the existence
of chastity and domestic virtue. A sepulchral inscription, it may be
argued, is a poor witness to facts. I would suggest in reply, that a
nation ceases to commemorate the virtue which has ceased to exist, or
which it has, through a general depravity of manners, ceased to
respect.
[34] The great body of all law is of small practical importance,
because, in spite of the five points of Calvinism and the long faces
of many bearded philosophers, the majority of mankind not only _obey_
the law, but transcend it,--do better than it requires. It is only the
few who transgress; and thus many absurdities are never or very rarely
dragged into the light of a "decision."