THE WOMAN OF EVOLUTION AND PESSIMISM. 



321 



men, does not go beyond the confines of their own 

 particular pursuits, but with women embraces the whole 

 sex, since they have only one kind of business. Even 



when they meet in the streets women 

 e jea ousy j^^j^ ^^ ^^^ another like Guelphs and 

 among women. ^, ., ,,. j • • / , 



Ghibelhnes; and it is a patent fact that 



when two of them make first acquaintance with each 

 other, they behave with more constraint and dissimu- 

 lation than two men would show in a like case; and 

 hence it is that an exchange of compliments between 

 two women is a much more ridiculous proceeding than 

 between two men. Further, while a man will, as a gen- 

 eral rule, always preserve a certain amount of considera- 

 tion and humanity in speaking to others, even to those 

 who are in a very inferior position, it is intolerable to 

 see how proudly and disdainfully a fine lady will gen- 

 erally behave toward one who is in a lower social rank 

 (I do not mean a woman who is in her service) when- 

 ever she speaks to her. The reason of this may be 

 that with women differences of rank are much more pre- 

 carious than with us, because, while a hundred consid- 

 erations carry weight in our case, in theirs there is only 

 one — namely, with which man they have found favour, 

 as also that they stand in much nearer relations with 

 one another than men do, in consequence of the one- 

 sided nature of their calling. This makes them endeav- 

 our to lay stress upon differences of rank. 



" It is only the man whose intellect is clouded by 

 his impulses that could give the name of //ee fair sex 



to that undersized, narrow-shouldered. 



The unaesthetic , ji- j a ■u ^ \ a c 



broad-hipped, and short-legged race, for 



the whole beauty of the sex is bound up 



with the sex-impulse. Instead of calling them beautiful, 



there would be more warrant for describing women as 



the unaesthetic sex. Neither for music, nor for poetry, 



