290 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



much to a womanly habit, as to a womanly brain as well as body. 

 Sex is a law to body as well as brain. Sex pervades all Nature, not 

 for the sake of the individual, but for that of the species. 



In the insect-world, some bright little creature lives but a few 

 hours, deposits its egg and dies. The sum of its life is sex. Not less 

 do I believe does man, notwithstanding the grandeur of his intellect, 

 conform to the same inexorable law. 



Before we enter upon the more difficult part of our subject, there 

 are certain conceded mental attributes peculiar to the sexes which are 

 legitimate subjects of investigation. I say there are mental differences 

 conceded ; because, without thought, we include them in our ideal of 

 women, or of men. In the same manner, we need not recall to our 

 minds, or to the minds of others, that women are characterized nearly 

 the world over by peculiarities of dress which distinguish them as a 

 sex. It is part of our ideal of women, because they have ever been 

 associated with such peculiarities. In literature and art, woman has 

 maintained her lofty place, separated more widely from man by her 

 mental trait than by her differences in form. It has ever been a 

 theme more of mind than of matter which has inspired the poet to 

 entwine women in his graceful verse. Her truth, her gentleness, her 

 constancy, these are immortal themes ; these are the chords of her 

 nature which have found responsive vibrations in the hearts of poets, 

 and made the monuments of their genius eternal. When the poet and 

 the artist see more in the enticements of woman's form than in her 

 mind, the best of men shrink from the picture. Is it not because our 

 ideal woman in art is associated more with sexual graces of mind than 

 of body ? When that strange poet, Algernon Swinburne, clothed in 

 his matchless English the gospel of the flesh, the world of literature 

 recoiled. This union of the gentle nature of woman as a theme with 

 the beautiful in literature, dates back to the cradle of art. Now, what 

 are these conceded mental differences between the sexes. " Soothing, 

 unspeakable charm of gentle womanhood ! which supersedes all acqui- 

 sitions, all accomplishments," says George Eliot, in " Scenes of Cleri- 

 cal Life." 



We may assume gentleness of mind as a sexual mental trait. It 

 does not spring from any process of conscious I'easoning. It has no 

 main-spring in a sense of expediency. Unconsciousness and spon- 

 taneity are the conditions of its existence. The practical bearing of 

 this paper is to estimate the value of these mental traits as affecting 

 the affairs of daily life. Necessarily, therefore, we must have an ap- 

 proximate standard of measurement. I seek this standard in that 

 class which usually deals with the active affairs of life the masculine 

 type of mind. Not only for this reason do I select this criterion ; but, 

 also, this is the type women are endeavoring to reach in essaying a 

 career in the professions. The two types of mind, masculine and 

 feminine, by mutual contrast afford the surest indication of sexual 



