SEXUAL cerebration: 291 



differences in intellection. This gentleness of woman has found its 

 way into the argument as something definite, as a descriptive trait of 

 character, yet by itself is nameless. Relating to woman as it chiefly 

 does, it seems to consist of a mobility and pliability of character, an 

 unconscious avoidance of harshness and fixity of thought. Not a 

 want of fixity as indicating fickleness of character, but implying con- 

 cessions to the wishes of others. This gentleness of mental habitude 

 in women, which so clearly isolates the psychical condition of the 

 sexes, finds its factor in sexual differences. Unavoidably, this takes 

 approximate force. Reasoning cannot make it clearer that this type 

 of woman is an expression of sex in mind. We see this feminine type 

 of mind associated with certain bodily configurations which are equally 

 expressive of sex. We also find exceptions to this form of sexual cere- 

 bration. There are women who approach more or less nearly in posi- 

 tiveness and habitual harshness to the masculine type. With this 

 there is almost invariably associated masculine development of form. 

 Masculine brawn, bone and muscle, shaded and toned down by the 

 irrepressible presence of sex, define this phase of the feminine mind. 

 The voice approaches a manly compass, the down upon the upper lip 

 becomes short, delicate hairs ; the stature exceeds the average of 

 woman's ; the limbs are muscular and strong. With these bodily 

 powers of aggression there is a natural outgrowth of mental belliger- 

 ence. This is a law of Nature. The man who shrinks from a physi- 

 cal contest with his fellows is one of conscious bodily weakness. His 

 body measures, therefore, the extent of mental aggressiveness. Not 

 necessarily do these women possess the male intellect ; they simply 

 approach the male type in this single aspect of their characters, other 

 and equally feminine attributes of mind existing in full force. But, as 

 demonstrating a sexual origin for this traditional and actual gentle- 

 ness of the female mind, the fact that certain departures fi-om the typi- 

 cal feminine form are associated with equally positive analogies to the 

 typical masculine mind, seems to me to be conclusive. 



These two conditions of mind existing in full force tend to place 

 the sexes at the opposite poles of human actions, that of demanding 

 and yielding, that of giving and receiving. George Eliot is right in 

 saying that this feature of mental character supersedes all acquisi- 

 tions, all artificial acquirements. Education and refinement may lend 

 it additional attractiveness, but it is a primordial sexual trait of mind 

 the brightest gem in woman's chaplet of mental charms, around 

 which may cluster other and equally attractive traits without impair- 

 ing its lustre. 



I believe it to be evident that the opposite psychical conditions of 

 the sexes under consideration determine for men and women their 

 careers in society to one the strife and struggle with the world, to 

 the other the gentle occupations of the home. From the male sex we 

 may obtain a forcible example of how potent is the sexual factor in 



