3i8 



FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 



life is paid not by what she does, but by what she 

 suffers." " Sorrow and joy and action are not for her 



gentle, peaceful, and trivial life." As 



Inefficiency of ,. u r.. i u 



•^ nurse or teacher woman often excels, be- 



woman. ^ ,.,.,,.,.., 



cause by nature sne is childish, frivolous, 



and short-sighted. For these reasons she comes near to 

 the hearts of children and invalids. 



When women are young, according to Schopenhauer, 

 they attract men strongly but without reason. " With 

 young girls Nature seems to have had 

 ^^^^y ° in view what in the language of the 



drama is called a striking effect, as for 

 a few years she dowers them with a wealth of beauty 

 and is lavish in her gifts of charm at the expense of all 

 the rest of their life, so that during those years they 

 may capture the fancy of some man to such a degree 

 that he is hurried away into undertaking the honour- 

 able care of them in some form or other as long as they 

 live — a step for which there would not appear to be any 

 sufficient warrant if reason only directed his thoughts. 



"Accordingly, Nature has equipped woman, as she 



does all her creatures, with the weapons and implements 



requisite for the safeguarding of her 



eau y a a existence, and for iust as long as it is 



weapon. r i i 



necessary for her to have them. Here, 



as elsewhere, Nature proceeds with her usual economy, 

 for just as the female ant after fecundation loses her 

 wings, which are then superfluous, nay, actually a dan- 

 ger to the business of breeding, so, after giving birth to 

 one or two children, a woman generally loses her beauty, 

 probably, indeed, for similar reasons. 



"And so we find that young girls in 



nvia 1 y o their hearts look upon domestic affairs 



or work of any kind as of secondary 



importance, if not actually as a mere jest. The only 



