THE CODE OF HONOUR AMONG WOMEN. [To THE EDITOR OF
THE " SPECTATOR."] should like to say a few words in reply to an article in the Spectator of January 13th. My paper on "Women's Sense of Honour" in Woman was necessarily slight, and in it I stated that I was not alluding to the "weightier matters a the law," but to those points only on which the pressure of public opinion is notably lax, if it exists at all. In spite of his arguments, which assume the contrary, the writer of your article eventually recognises this as my pur- pose. The subject, of coarse, admits of endless discussion ; but I only feel myself challenged in one paragraph, viz., that beginning with, "The point at which women seem to us to fail most in honour' is in controversy." To this I agree, and I only did not allude to it in my little paper because this particular deficiency seems to me to lie in the intellectual, not in the moral sphere, to which I had restricted myself. But I grant that, whatever may be the cause of this failure, it is, in effect, very detrimental to a woman's sense of honour; and it would be well if, before claiming equal rights with men, women should learn the alphabet of all equality, viz., that whoever strikes a blow must be ready to receive one in return. The sanction of a convention—falsely kind—which enables women to use the peculiarities of their position in the world both as a sword and as a shield, is indeed one of the greatest impediments to their advancement.
I regret that circumstances prevented me from replying
before to this article in the Spectator. am, however, re- conciled to the delay when I consider that it may have been a cause of satisfaction to my very civil antagonist—or, should I say, adviser ?—who no doubt interpreted my silence as an illustration of his statement, that women are "always seizing small advantages, evading direct issues, gliding away under cover of personalities."—I am, Sir, Sze., The Danes, Hertford, Jan. 25th. CONSTANCE LYTTON.
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