CHARACTER OF THE MORE IMPASSIONED WOMAN. 21 



the emotions are not only deep, but they are also on 

 the side of justice and mercy. Their morality itself is 

 associated with deep feeling. It may take a pro- 

 foundly-reasoned and independent course ; possibly it 

 will not always fit itself to social or conventional 

 standards. It will not be an imitation or a submis- 

 sion ; not a bid for reward here or hereafter. 



It is in the domestic circle that the difference 

 between the less impassioned and the more impas- 

 sioned woman is most clearly seen. The less impas- 

 sioned, it has been said, puts on her leaves and 

 blossoms in society, and shows her bare stems and 

 thorns at home : the more impassioned tends rather 

 to reverse the proceeding; the wealth of her nature 

 is reserved for her own hearth. Here she unfolds 

 herself; here are her joys and sorrows; here her gains 

 and losses ; here also, alas ! much depending on 

 intellectual capacity and environment, her faults and 

 weaknesses are seen perhaps slowness to forgive, or 

 implacability, or sullenness, or anger, or jealousy, or 

 even, though rarely, the still deeper degradation born 

 of uncontrolled passions. In one partly domestic, 

 partly social aspect of life she sometimes contrasts 

 unfavourably with her unimpassioned sister. She is 

 less apt to think of the comfort and welfare of the 

 absent. Too charmed with the moment, its companions, 

 its incidents, she is disposed to forget others and forget 

 time. 



In women of both the fundamental types something 

 of affectation is not rarely met with, but with a differ- 

 ence. The less impassioned woman is sometimes 

 singularly imitative and she often puts her imitative 

 faculty to good use, and selects the best models. If 

 Mrs. Monmouth has a good accent, or Mrs. Montgomery 



