The Emdence from Intellectual Differences. 263 



posed from one novel or play to anotliei- with mncli 

 less violence than would attend the transposition of the 

 male characters. 



It is hardly necessary to call attention to the ohyious 

 fact that our conclusions have a strong leaning to the 

 conservative or old-fashioned view of the subject — to 

 what many will call the '^male" view of women. The 

 positions which women already occupy in society and 

 the duties which they perform are, in the main, what 

 they should be if our view is correct; and any attempt 

 to improve the condition of women by ignoring or oblit- 

 erating the intellectual differences between them and 

 men must result in disaster to the race, and the ob- 

 struction of that progress and improvement which the 

 history of the past shows to be in store for both men 

 and women in the future. So far as human life in this 

 woild is concerned there can be no improvement which 

 is not accomplished in accordance with the laws of na- 

 ture; and, if it is a natural law that the parts which the 

 sexes perform in the natural evolution of the race are 

 complemental to each other, we cannot hope to accom- 

 plish anytliiiig by working in opposition to the natural 

 method. We may, however, do much to hasten ad- 

 vancement by recognizing and working in accordance 

 with this method. 



It is no more than just, too, to point out that the pe- 

 culiar bodily organization and physiological functions 

 of woman have nothing to do with our conclusion. If 

 the perpetuation of the human race were as simple as 

 that of the starfish, where the demands made upon the 

 female organism during reproduction are no greater 

 than those made upon the male, the mind of woman 

 would still be the organ of intellectual heredity, and the 

 mind of man the organ of intellectual variation. 



Up to this point I have simply indicated some of the 



