Page:Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct.djvu/165

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him saying—"The woman whom thou gavest to be with me generously offered me a share of the apple, and I did eat. But the Serpent whom thou didst permit to tell lies to my amiable partner concerning this special kind of fruit, was chiefly to blame."

Coward Adam, as he is seen and known among the lower classes, crops up every day in newspapers, which duly chronicle his various acts, such as promising marriage to poor working girls and robbing them of all their little savings, as well as of their good names,—kicking his wife, starving his children, and spending every penny he earns in the public-house. But he is just as frequently met with in the houses of the Upper Ten. He will wear the garb of a lord with ease, and, entering the house of another lord, will cozen his host's wife away from loyalty to her husband in quite the manner "friendly." He is likewise to be found occasionally in the walks of literature, and where a woman is concerned in matters artistic will "down" her if he can. He has always done his best to hinder woman from receiving any acknowledgment for superior intellectual ability. Notably one may quote the case of Madame Curie, the discoverer of radium. Coward Adam says she discovered it by "a fluke"—that is to say, by chance. Most great discoveries occur, even to men, in the same way. In the present instance the "chance" came to a woman. Why should she not therefore have all the honour due to her?—the same honour precisely as would fall to the lot of a man in her place? Columns upon columns of praise would be bestowed upon her were she of Adam's sex, and all