REPRODUCTION AND SEX 581 



this. Take Woman's. Here, with all due manly respect, we may be 

 reluctantly compelled, by observation in life, to admit that as a 

 matter of fact she does not always fully occupy the pedestal of 

 Pallas; and even that such attainment seems at present compara- 

 tively rare. But Aphrodite's life-urge, with its doves and Cupids, 

 chariots her, swiftly as may be, towards the realisation of her sex ; 

 and for this there are two ways, one within the Olympian circle, the 

 other without. What are these in plainer terms? Though normally 

 this life-passage is to wife and to mother, it may also "fall", even 

 to courtesan and prostitute. But not every woman, in our Western 

 world especially, either way effectuates her sex; so she may thus 

 pass from girlhood-phase of Artemis to the grey hairs of Demeter. 

 Here again her way divides — at best to sisterhood and to true 

 motherliness ; and this through sublimations, psychic compensations, 

 and consolations — of which the old religious orders and the modem 

 professions of social service alike offer such noble instances. Yet 

 our own civilisation, through too many recent generations, has 

 afforded too little of such outlets, and so left too many a "maiden 

 withering on the stalk"; whence the term "old maid", with its 

 harsh as well as pitying judgments. 



Again, even the child Hebe may be shortened of her free growth 

 to Artemis; with her helpfulness too constrained to labour, and this 

 even to latest age. Again, on one side this has its psychic compensa- 

 tions, with simple yet worthy career; witness the "lay-sister" of old 

 communities, or the faithful old servant, appreciated, increasingly 

 to her very end and bequeathing vital influence to honoured 

 memory, like many an old nurse, as from Ulysses' days to Steven- 

 son's. Yet alas, our social pressure too often reduces her to drudge 

 and "slavey", and later even to slut; at times even to harridan, 

 hag, and thence to crone. 



Yet all those secondary and shortened life-phases may catch 

 gleams from Athena's eyes; even those outside the normal curve 

 of life: witness the often illustrious hetaira, the sharp-witted old 

 maid, and the long-dreaded witch. Leaving psychology, may not 

 the biologist here find a suggestive clue towards abating his per- 

 plexities over the many "abbreviations," which occur in the course 

 of his observations of the phases and stages of development? 



MAN AND HIS LIFE PHASES.— Turning to Man, the phases of his 

 life-cycle exhibit corresponding abbreviations, with light upon many 

 of his characteristic secondary types accordingly. So of these also 

 a brief outline, since again suggestive for the better understanding 

 of human life — and perhaps even also towards interpretations in 

 biology. 



To woman's eyes, man does not always attain to the perfect 

 Apollo, even though he may think he does. But how much more 



