Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



391 



NIETZSCHE AND WOMEN. 

 Paradoxes of tiie German Philosopher. 

 l.N the first March number of the R(vue des Deux 

 Mondes M. Emile Faguet has an article on " Nietzsche 

 and Women." 



FLNDAMENTAI. DIFFERENCES OF MEN AND WOMEN. 



Nietzsche, we are told, spoke very little of women 

 and love, but he gave some thought to the question. 

 He considers women much more remarkable for their 

 intelligence than for their feeling or sensitiveness. 

 Their intelligence is shown by their presence of mind, 

 by their complete mastery and utilisation of every 

 advantage. They transmit it to their children as 

 their fundamental quality. Women have under- 

 standing, men feeling and passion, he maintains. But 

 it might be said that the results of masculine intelli- 

 gence go much farther than those of women. Nietzsche 

 has foreseen the objection. Men, he says, do carry 

 their understanding farther, make it do greater things, 

 because they have deeper and stronger motives, such 

 as ambition, amour-propre, pride; but in itself the 

 understanding of men is something passive which 

 needs a powerful motive force to bring about the 

 effect of which it is capable. 



^ NIETZSCHE NO FEMINIST. 



But, says M. Faguet, men seek sensitiveness and 

 feeling in women. Nietzsche replies that, if in the 

 choice of a partner man looks for a sensitive being, 

 and woman, on the other hand, looks for one cle\er 

 and brilliant, it is because man seeks the ideal man 

 and woman the ideal woman, and not the comple- 

 ment but the fulfilment of their own advantages. 

 While admiring Nietzsche's paradox, M. Faguet 

 suggests that it would be nearer the truth to say 

 that it is woman who has a quick and practical intelli- 

 gence, whereas that of man is slow and abstract. 

 Nietzsche's view would lead one to suppose that he 

 is a femini>t. luii that is not the case. He contradicts 

 himself when In attributes intelligence to women and 

 then says that politics must be forbidden to them. 

 Is it not preciM-l)- practical intelligence and knowledge 

 whi( h are needed in politics — the qualities which he 

 attributes to w omen — and not abstract knowledge and 

 passion, which lie attributes to men ? But, he adds, 

 things may change. They have, changed, indeed, 

 observ'cs M. Faguet, and women are gradually trans- 

 forming their pra( tical intelligence into a semi-practical 

 and semi-alistr.ict one. 



EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 



As regards the education of women, Nietzsche only 

 touches on that of the women of the upper classes, 

 which he describes as stupefying and monstrous. 

 Nothing could be more paradoxical than the plan of 

 bringing up girls in absolute ignorance — to learn the 

 truth after marriage. 



LOVE SIKiRT-SIGIITED RATHER THAN HUM). 



Again, with regard to love, Nietzsche infinitely 

 prefers friendship. Lovers, he says, are short-sighted, 

 and sometime only str<inf.'er glasses would sullicc to 



cure them. To Nietzsche love is a kind of prejudice, 

 a salutary misunderstanding. That is to say, in the 

 practice of love there is a salutary misunderstanding 

 which prevents love from being the same thing for 

 man and woman, and which retards disillusionment. 

 What w Oman understands by love is complete renuncia- 

 tion of herself — which presupposes that a similar 

 feeling does not exist on the other side. 



AMOROUS FRIENDSHIP AND .MARRIAGE. 



Nietzsche has also something to say of another kind 

 of love, namely, amorous friendship, which he charac- 

 terises as good friendship. Friendship, he sajs, is 

 born when one holds another in great esteem, greater 

 than the esteem for oneself, but whom one loves less 

 than oneself, and when a certain amount of intimacy 

 is added. Real intimacy must be wisely avoided. 

 Women can very well form friendship with a man. 

 but to maintain it, it must perhaps be accompanied 

 by a small physical antipathy. To Nietzsche marriage 

 ought to be founded on amorous friendship, with the 

 physical antipathy reduced to its minimum. His 

 fundamental maxim on this point is that the best 

 friend will undoubtedly have the best wife, because a 

 good marriage depends on the talent for friendship. 



THE THREE EMPIRES OF ASIA. 



In the Geographical Journal for ]\Iarch Mr. Archibald 

 Rose gives a delightful account of the Chinese frontier 

 of India. Reading, one seems to be tra\'ersing the region 

 with him. He thus speaks of the three great Empires 

 which dominate Asia :— 



The whole history of Cenlial Asia indeed is .nil olject-lesson 

 in that strange fate whicli presses nations forward, often against 

 their will, and imposes upon them ever-increasing burdens. 

 Civilisation has no place for the lawless tribal fringe, and it 

 must sooner or later be broken or dominated, a task which has 

 occupied the energies and moulded the policies not only of Eng- 

 land, but of Russia also and China. 1 hey have met now in a 

 common goal with the best and surest of fruntieis, the watershed 

 that sweeps across a continent and has boundtd the ambitions 

 of man from the beginnings of time. It is difticult to realise 

 what it all means until one wanders through Central Asia, alor.e 

 and unharmed, in places where within llie memory of living 

 men, defenceless travellers had learned to expect a cruel and 

 certain death. One realises then that though old conditions 

 may have fostered a bolder spirit in many a gallant tribesman, 

 yet for the world at large the change has been all gain. Eng- 

 land and Russia and China have worked hand in hand in this 

 towards the greatest good of all, and now at last that old tr.ade 

 route which led from Rome across to China is once more open 

 to peaceful caravans, once more protected by great imperial 

 powers, and free at last from its long eclipse under the hands 

 of nomad hordes and lawless mountain princes. 



In the March number of the Treasury Dorothy 

 Hilton has an article on the Chtipclle Expiatoire in 

 the Boulevard Haussmann and its tombs. Inside, the 

 chapel contains the dust of l.ouis N\'l. and his consort. 

 Under the arcades in the garden lie the bones of the 

 soldiers of the .Swiss Guard who died so manfully in 

 defence of the Tuileries on .\ugust 10th. 1702. Other 

 tombs are those of Charlotte Corday. Philippe Egalite, 

 Madiime Roland, Madtinie Dubarry, Marie Antoinette, 

 and other hapless mortals. 



