154 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



are determined in those cases where experience has shown that they 

 apply. Those laws of conduct which have been long recognized 

 gradually assume the shape of habits or intuitions, according to which 

 conduct is almost unconsciously regulated, and the habits finally be- 

 come established as one of the hereditary characteristics of the race. 



We are apt to confine our attention to the subjective side of hu- 

 man advancement, and to neglect the structural side, and at the same 

 time to neglect the subjective side of the evolution of the lower forms 

 of life, and to confine our attention to the structural side, but of 

 course no one can doubt that a new habit is represented by a new spe- ' 

 cialization of structure, and is transmitted like any other peculiarity 

 by heredity. 



If this is so, and if the female organism is the conservative organ- 

 ism, to which is intrusted the keeping of all that has been gained 

 during the past history of the race, it must follow that the female 

 mind is a storehouse filled with the instincts, habits, intuitions, and 

 laws of conduct which have been gained by past experience. The 

 male organism, on the contrary, being the variable organism, the origi- 

 nating element in the process of evolution, the male mind must have 

 the power of extending experience over new fields, and, by comparison 

 and generalization, of discovering new laws of nature, which are in 

 their turn to become rules of action, and to be added on to the series 

 of past experiences. 



Our examination of the origin and significance of the physiological 

 differences between the sexes, and of the parts which they have taken 

 in the progress of the past, would therefore lead us to expect certain 

 profound and fundamental psychological differences, having the same 

 importance ; and it will be interesting to examine what these intellec- 

 tual and ethical differences are, and how far experience and the com- 

 mon consent of mankind accord with the demands of our hypothesis. 



If, as we suppose, the especial and peculiar function of the male 

 mind is the expansion of our circle of experience ; the more exact ap- 

 prehension of all our relations to the external world ; the discovery of 

 the laws of thought, of society, of physiology, and of the material uni- 

 verse, and of the bearing of these laws upon individual conduct it 

 will follow that men must excel women in their power to discover the 

 manner in Avhich a new external relation shall be met and provided 

 for by a new internal adjustment. In a case where our instincts, in- 

 tuitions, feelings, or past experiences furnish no guide to conduct, the 

 judgment of a man as to the proper course of action will be of more 

 value than the judgment of a woman. 



On the other hand, only a very small proportion of our actions are 

 directed to new conditions ; experience has already determined the 

 proper conduct in all the circumstances upon which our preservation 

 and well-being most directly depend ; and action in these circum- 

 stances does not demand comparison and judgment, while it must usu- 



