WOMAN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 293 



study, into numerous sets of apparatus, each having a definite office in 

 the general economy as the digestive apparatus, the reproductive, 

 the intellectual, etc. the correlation of all the forces and functions of 

 the hody is so intimate and subtile that true philosophy makes no at- 

 tempt to measure the exact and separate influence of any one force or 

 function upon the rest, or upon the organism as a whole. Hence, to 

 estimate the influence of sex in any given organism is impossible upon 

 general principles, and evidently so in the case under consideration, 

 from the fact that there is no standard of comparison. To assume 

 man as the staudard would be obviously absurd, for he is as distinc- 

 tively differentiated as is woman, and it is impossible for a scientific 

 imagination to conceive of a common type of the human species ex- 

 cluding the idea of sex; the attempt would demonstrate the impossi- 

 bility of separating the mental conception of its two phases just as 

 it would be impossible to conceive of a magnetic needle without po- 

 larity. Its opposite poles may be designated and described, their 

 peculiarities discussed, and their superficial relations partially under- 

 stood ; but who has any distinct idea of the real significance of their 

 relations ? The only clear thought is that they are complemental, and 

 incapable of separate existence furnishing a complete example of 

 perfect duality in perfect unity ; and the absurdity of the idea of a 

 " common type " of its two poles is obvious. If any thing, it would 

 be a magnetic needle without magnetism ; in other words, a conceived 

 inconceivability ! Recognizing the difficulties which beset this inves- 

 tigation, then, the most that can be hoped for is the attainment of 

 some broader and deeper truth than appears on the surface of the 

 present disturbances in the social world ; the only legitimate inquiry 

 seems to be in regard to the influences and conditions which have re- 

 suited in the woman of to-day ; and the practical questions related to 

 it : Is there a tendency toward any important change in these influ- 

 ences and conditions, and, if so, in what direction ? From what has 

 gone before, my readers will have already inferred that the study of 

 this subject will unavoidably include that of its natural complement, 

 and that, should w r e succeed in obtaining answer to these questions, 

 others of equal interest will find solution. 



While the distinction of sex has for its manifest object the con- 

 tinuation of the race, that it is of deeper significance than this that it 

 has important bearings upon race-development as well as race-pres- 

 ervation is indicated by a mass of evidence of so great weight as to 

 carry with it the force of a demonstration. In Darwin's " Descent of 

 Man" we have an accumulation of statements of facts gathered from 

 vast fields of observation by many of the foremost naturalists of the 

 age ; and his deductive interpretations of these facts seem to have 

 been accepted by a majority of the leading naturalists and physicists 

 of the day. Such being the case, we are warranted in making this 

 work the basis of our inquiry, thus looking at the subject from the 



