Montesquieu

“ You see, my dear Ibben, that I have fallen in with the fashion of this country, where they are fond of defending extra-ordinary opinions, and of reducing everything to a paradox.The prophet has decided this question, and has settled the rights of both sexes.“Women,” he says, “ought to honor their husbands; and husbands, their wives: but men are a degree higher in the scale of creation than women.” ”

“ It must be admitted, although shocking to our ideas of propriety, that, amongst the most polite people, women have always borne sway over their husbands; their authority was established by law among the Egyptians in honour of Isis, and among the Babylonians in honour of Semiramis.It was said of the Romans that they, who ruled all the world, were ruled by their wives.I say nothing of the Sauromates1, who were held in a state of slavery by their women ”