ACTIVE AND LESS IMPASSIONED MAN. 29 



rate they find a wider scope. They show themselves 

 not only in his manner and speech but also in 

 his opinion, policy, action, and sometimes even in 

 his religion and politics. The woman disapproves of 

 small matters mainly, the man disapproves of every- 

 thing small and great. The acid comment of the 

 woman becomes petulance, caprice, waywardness, or 

 actual discourtesy in the man. Circumstance no 

 doubt explains much: if their spheres were changed, 

 and especially if they were both of the extremer sort, 

 the man would become a domestic scold and the 

 woman a social mountebank. 



The very mistakes of the slightly impassioned man 

 arise from deficient feeling. His intellect sees an 

 opportunity of striking a sensational blow; his feelings 

 do not step in and say, " the blow is needless, or 

 reckless, or painful to others, or dishonest." The 

 woman is kept from grave errors by her instinctive and 

 instant concession to social demands. She also would 

 like to be talked about, but she must be respectable ; 

 the man would like to be respectable, but he must be 

 talked about. 



Even the abler man of action rarely puts forth new 

 ideas, or opens new paths, or sheds new light ; but he 

 is quick to follow, to seize, to apply, to carry out. He 

 does not create atmospheres, but he most usefully con- 

 denses them into solid benefits. 



The unimpassioned man, more than the woman, is 

 exposed to divers collateral religious and political forces, 

 but like her, his natural tendency is to ancient, or at 

 least accepted, forms of belief and policy. Special 

 circumstances may sometimes lead him to contemplate 

 with admiration the audacity of his own heresy. 

 Opportune openings too for personal ambition may take 



