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High Opinion. To scan the list of Dictators' consorts is to wonder what their husbands think of them. Not long ago Signor Benito Mussolini, the epitome of Dictatorship, gave the following High Opinion:
"What do I think of marriage? That it is a necessary institution, a contract to be entered into between a man and a woman for the good of the State, and for that reason it should never be dissolved, so long as they both live.
"Flirtations should be indulged in as frequently as possible up to the age of 40, then a man should settle down to more stable amusements, such as work.
"What more agreeable than the enthusiasm a woman knows how to awaken in a man? What more charming, thrilling than the first kiss; what brings a more profound sigh of relief than the last?
"The power behind the throne? No, woman is not that. No great man has ever beep inspired to greatness by a woman's unseen power. . . .
"Men are inspired by ambition or conviction; their desires to accomplish something in the world are purely selfish. If you could look into the soul of every man you meet in the course of a day, no vision of a woman would, be enshrined there. No woman ever penetrates to the soul of a man, despite all things said to the contrary. . . . Left in their proper relation to man women are all that is delicious, adorable, sensuous. They are, in a large sense, necessary to our physical wellbeing. . . ."
* Leading empresses and queens in descending order of the number of males they have borne are:
Victoria Mary, Queen-Empress of Great Britain 4
Victoria Eugenie, Queen of Spain 4
Elizabeth, Queen of Belgium 2
Victoria, Queen of Sweden 2
Alexandrine, Queen of Denmark 2
Marie, Queen of Jugoslavia 2
Elena, Queen of Italy 1
Maud, Queen of Norway 1
* "I cannot comprehend," Marshal Pilsudski has said, "how the drones can make all the other bees work."