vertex of a private soldier brings with it danger of death;⁠—what can it be to run against a woman, except absolute and immediate destruction? And when a woman is invisible, or visible only as a dim sub-lustrous point, how difficult must it be, even for the most cautious, always to avoid collision!

Many are the enactments made at different times in the different States of Flatland, in order to minimize this peril; and in the Southern and less temperate climates where the force of gravitation is greater, and human beings more liable to casual and involuntary motions, the laws concerning women are naturally much more stringent. But a general view of the code may be obtained from the following summary:⁠—

Every house shall have one entrance in the Eastern side, for the use of females only; by which all females shall enter “in a becoming and respectful manner” and not by the men’s or Western door.
No female shall walk in any public place without continually keeping up her peace-cry, under penalty of death.
Any female, duly certified to be suffering from St. Vitus’s Dance, fits, chronic cold accompanied by violent sneezing, or any disease necessitating involuntary motions, shall be instantly destroyed.

In some of the States there is an additional law forbidding females, under penalty of death, from walking or standing in any public place without moving their backs constantly from right to left so as to indicate their presence to those behind them; others oblige a woman, when travelling, to be followed by one of her sons, or servants, or by her husband; others confine women altogether to their houses except during the religious festivals. But it has been found by the wisest of our Circles or statesmen that the multiplication of restrictions on females tends not only to the debilitation and diminution of the race, but also to the increase of domestic murders to such an extent that a State loses more than it gains by a too prohibitive code.