VI.  The question which you have put seems to me to do honour to chastity, and to demand a kind reply.  Chastity, in respect of which I see that the majority of men are ill-disposed, and that their laws are unequal and irregular.  For what was the reason why they restrained the woman, but indulged the man, and that a woman who practises evil against her husband’s bed is an adulteress, and the penalties of the law for this are very severe; but if the husband commits fornication against his wife, he has no account to give?  I do not accept this legislation; I do not approve this custom.  They who made the Law were men, and therefore their legislation is hard on women, since they have placed children also under the authority of their fathers, while leaving the weaker sex uncared for.  God doth not so; but saith Honour thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee; and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.  Similarly He gave honour to good and punishment to evil.  And, The blessing of a father strengtheneth the houses of children, but the curse of a mother uprooteth the foundations. Ecclus. iii. 11.  See the equality of the legislation.  There is one Maker of man and woman; one debt is owed by children to both their parents.