The Truth About Woman

Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has been preserved.
A RECORD OF SPANISH PAINTING PICTURES IN THE TATE GALLERY
The Prado (Spanish Series) El Greco (Spanish Series) Velazquez (Spanish Series)
MOORISH CITIES IN SPAIN THINGS SEEN IN SPAIN SPAIN REVISITED: A Summer Holiday in Galicia SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA (Mediæval Towns Series) CATHEDRALS OF SOUTHERN AND EASTERN SPAIN
In writing at last this book on Woman, which for so many years has had a place in my thoughts, one truth has forced itself upon me: the predominant position of Woman in her natural relation to the race. The mother is the main stream of the racial life. All the hope of the future rests upon this faith in motherhood.
To whom, then, but to you, my little son, can I dedicate my book? You came to me when I was still seeking out a way in the futility of Individual ends; you reconciled my warring motives and desires; you brought me a new guiding principle. You taught me that the Individual Life is but as a bubble or cluster of foam on the great tide of humanity. I knew that the redemption of Woman rests in the growing knowledge and consciousness of her responsibility to the race.
The social revolution which is impending in Europe is chiefly concerned with the future of the workers and the women. It is for this that I hope and wait, and for this I will work with all my powers. —Ibsen.

It is very difficult to write a preface to a work which is expressly intended as a revelation of the faith of the writer. The successive stages of thought and emotion that have been passed through are still too near, and one feels too deeply. I have made several futile attempts to concentrate into a short note the Truths about Woman that I have tried to convey in my book. I find it impossible to do this. The explanation of one's own book would really require the writing of another book, as Mr. Bernard Shaw has proved to us in his delightful prefaces. But to do this one must be freed altogether from the limits of length and time. The fragments of what I wish to say would be of no service to any one.