A PREMATURE DISCUSSION. 377 



Miss Hardaker's argument, which show that, whether or not her final 

 conclusion be correct, the proofs and reasoning which she adduces to 

 sustain it do not fulfill that purpose. 



In the first place, Miss Hardaker brings forward prominently the 

 argument that, as the brain of man is larger than that of woman, there- 

 fore his intellectual ability must be greater. But she omits to first 

 prove that size is an essential attribute of superiority. Some of the 

 most intelligent members of the animal kingdom have also, as far as 

 actual size is concerned, the smallest brains. Excluding man, no other 

 animals have elaborated for themselves such complicated social sys- 

 tems as have ants and bees. There are many similar facts which tend 

 to show that size of brain has only a relative instead of an independent 

 value, and scientific investigations have not yet been carried far enough 

 to establish the physiological bases upon which this relative value of 

 brains is to be estimated. It is quite possible that it may ultimately 

 be found to depend upon factors of which we as yet know nothing. 



The argument that, as man has larger stomach and lungs than 

 woman, he must consequently have more energy and more mental 

 ability, is equally without a base in any such accumulation of exact 

 facts as must always be the only foundation for trustworthy induc- 

 tions. The fact that the elephant and horse have also larger stomach 

 and lungs than those of man has not enabled them to surpass human 

 beings in that complex evolution of mental and moral qualities which 

 we agree to denominate superiority. The real material causes from 

 which such superiority proceeds we have yet to discover ; and, while 

 it looks at present as though relative size of body and brain might be 

 one among them, we have no such positive proof of this as would war- 

 rant resting an argument upon it. 



As to the other arguments founded upon the supposed inferiority 

 of intellectual vigor in women, owing to the discharge of their peculiar 

 physiological functions, it is only necessary to repeat that the solution 

 of this question involves a knowledge of the complicated workings 

 and balances of the human system which we do not yet possess. 



The argument for the intellectual superiority of man, based upon 

 the supposed superiority of his intellectual achievements, shows the 

 same unscientific disposition to draw conclusions before investigating 

 facts. The mass of the female sex has been engaged since the begin- 

 ning of civilization in two functions the regulating of household life 

 and the training of children both undoubtedly involving intellectual 

 activity.. Reflection must make it obvious that it would be impossible 

 to arrive at a correct conclusion as to woman's mental powers by com- 

 paring her achievements with those of man in fields which, as a sex, 

 she has never entered. In order to rightly estimate her brain-power, 

 it would be necessary to discover by long-extended and carefully col- 

 lated research the amount of intellectual ability involved in the dis- 

 charge of those functions to which her energies and intelligence have 



