WOMAN AND POLITICAL POWER. 8; 



words, the intellect of either sex has found pleasure in association witb 

 something dissimilar to itself, not because one is better or worse than 

 the other, but simply because the two are different. There is no more 

 reason for the assertion that a woman's brain is an undeveloped man's 

 which requires cultivation, than for the assertion that a man's pelvis is 

 an undeveloped woman's which requires to be expanded, or that some 

 of his muscles should be converted into fat. To him it is not, as a rule, 

 given to express himself so rapidly as a woman ; to her it is not, as a 

 rule, given to think so deeply as a man. But she often sees what is 

 lost to him during a fit of abstraction ; and he is often indebted to her 

 for the materials upon which his reflection may work. Genius, it has 

 often been said, is of both sexes at once ; and the saying well indicates 

 the true relation of the male and female intellects. Each has powers 

 and beauties of its own ; each may profit by contact with the other, 

 and it is not until some resemblance to a combination of the two has 

 been effected that men recognize that highest mental development to 

 which they give the name of genius. 



There are few subjects interesting to man in which clever women 

 do not sometimes also take an interest ; and from this fact it has been 

 hastily inferred that women might, with profit, devote the same atten- 

 tion as men to any and every branch of study. Such an inference 

 leaves out of sight the fact that women rarely look at any subject from 

 the same point of view as men ; their opinions often have the value 

 which is to be found in the observations of an intelligent spectator 

 when persons, whose whole attention is absorbed in any pursuit, fail to 

 perceive what most concerns them. The best critic is not always a 

 good author or composer ; and excellent suggestions are frequently 

 made by those who are not fitted by Nature to carry their own ideas 

 into operation. This is especially the case with women, who, if they 

 were to devote their whole energies to science or to politics, would do 

 violence to their physical organization. The prolonged effort which is 

 necessary in order to work out any great scheme, to make any great 

 discovery, to colligate any vast mass of materials by a great gener- 

 alization, is a heavier strain on the vital powers than any merely physi- 

 cal exertion. It is, like military service, inconsistent with that bodily 

 constitution which is adapted to maternity, and all that maternity im- 

 plies ; nor does it seem possible that by any process of selection, either 

 natural or human, this difficulty can be overcome. The change in wom- 

 an's nature must (if effected at all) be effected either in one generation 

 or more ; if in one, humanity nmst immediately cease to exist ; if in 

 more, humanity would only be extinguished by degrees ; but the diver- 

 sion of woman's vital powers, from the course which they take by 

 nature, is neither more nor less than the abolition of motherhood. And 

 this, either wholly or in part, either directly or indirectly, is what some 

 earnest men are preaching in the name of sexual equality. 



The modern attempts to deprive woman of her womanliness belong 



