They never appear to embody the superhuman strength and wisdom that children have to look up to if their natural taste for hero worship is to be gratified. Of the two poles between which upbringing always swings, the principle of loving intimacy of the mother and the principle of respectful distance embodied in the father, only one rules, and the childish desire for love that Americans display in their contacts throughout the world is a direct consequence of the absolute pre- dominance of the feminine principle. Intimacy, familiarity, lack of reverence have become the dominant themes of American life. American democracy, having proclaimed that all men are born equal and that they differ not in their essence but in their practical ability, left women out of the picture because the difference between the sexes is the foremost example of difference in essence. With the progress of democratic equality, the inevitable inclusion of women could only lead to their rise to unquestioned preeminence.
Business deals largely with the relations between man and nature, raw materials, machines.
The growing ascendancy of women always heralds the dawn of Civilization, emphasizing preservation and security. There was no greater revolution in Rome than the metamorphosis of women's social position at the close of the Hellenistic Age. They became emanci- pated in the second century B.C., not merely in an economic sense but in every way. Divorces became out- rageously frequent. The former despotic authority of the pater familias was shaken to its foundations and eventually swept away altogether.