12 ACTIVE AND LESS IMPASSIONED WOMAN. 



and disbeliefs are complete rather than strong. She 

 has no convictions, but she has no misgivings. She 

 does not believe, she adopts ; she does not disbelieve, 

 she ignores. She never inquires and never doubts. 

 If she is reminded of Mill's doctrine that no opinion 

 is worthily held until everything that can be said 

 against it has been heard and weighed, she replies 

 that "it is very well to talk, but all that Mill said was 

 not gospel/ 1 



In large affairs she defers to authority; in small 

 affairs she jumps to conclusions. In the detail of her 

 own little world whatever is is wrong ; in the larger 

 world outside in society, in churches and chapels and 

 parliaments whatever is is right. 



Even when possessing much capacity, and accessi- 

 bility to abstract reasoning, she instinctively rebels 

 against carrying the conclusions of reason into prac- 

 tice. If the bishops and clergy were to sign a declara- 

 tion saying they had come to see that there was no 

 evidence in favour of supernatural interposition, and 

 therefore they had resolved to resign their posts in a 

 body, she might possibly admit they were competent 

 judges on matters of theory but she would refuse to 

 understand the propriety of their practice. She would 

 go to church as usual the following Sunday morning, 

 and if she found the doors locked she would exclaim, 

 " Why could they not let things alone ? they were 

 very well as they were." 



Just as a microscopist stains a tissue with different 

 dyes to bring into view its various constituent elements, 

 so we shall learn much of character if we watch it 

 unfold in domestic, social, and public atmospheres. 

 If we look at the less impassioned woman at home, 

 and then in society, we see two different and appa- 



