IN CONCLUSION I have tried to set down in these pages the collective opinion of women, as far as it has expressed itself through deeds.

I have not succeeded if any reader lays down the book with the impression that he has merely been reading the story of the American club woman.

I have not succeeded at all if my readers imagine that I have been writing only about a selected group of women.

What I have meant to do is to show the instinctive bent of the universal woman mind in all ages, reflected in the actions of the freest group of women the world has ever seen.
I might have reanimated ages of stone and of bronze; might have shown you women, through slow centuries, inventing the arts of spinning and weaving, and pottery molding; learning to build, to till the earth, to grind and to cook grains, to tan skins for clothing against the cold.

No one taught them these things.