Books of thi-: Month. 



407 



experience and discipline which her reincarnated frag- 

 ment is acquiring in this world. No one can read Mr. 

 Carpenter and Miss Bates without being profoundly 

 impressed with the wonder and the mystery of the 

 soul and of se.x, and both help us to realise the value 

 of woman in other spheres than those of housekeeping 

 and child-bearing. 



II.— FOR AND AGAINST WOMEN. 



There are two books, published recently, which 

 mav be accepted as the embodiment of the defence 

 of women. The role of an Old Bailey assailant belongs 

 to an Englishman ; the beau role of the defence is 

 gallantly undertaken by M. Finot, of La Revue, Paris. 

 .Mr. Harold Owen is somewhat like an Old Bailex' 

 lawyer, who has his brief well in hand, and strains 

 every point to secure an adverse verdict. I prefer to 

 give the first place to JI. Finot, whose " Prejuge et 

 Prohleme des Se.xes " has been published as a volume 

 of the Library of Contemporary Philosophy. 



M. Finot is one of the most industrious writers of 

 our time. He is never so happy as when he is assailing 

 some deeply-seated prejudice, and demonstrating that 

 what most people thought was a truism is in reality 

 nothing but a fallacy. His attack upon race prejudice 

 has already made him famous throughout the world. 

 His book on longevity demonstrates conclusively that 

 mankind has fallen into the stupid habit of dying some 

 fifty or sixty years before its allotted span has run out : 

 and, now, in his third great book, he has assailed the 

 no le.ss inveterate prejudice that man is a superior 

 being. ^[. Finot is a knight errant of whom any 

 woman might be proud. 



He begins, like Mr. Carpenter, at the beginning with 

 the fecundation, by conjugation, of male and female 

 cells, following the march of women across the ages, and 

 concludes- his eloquent volume with a glowing prophecy 

 as to the splendour of the new world in which humanity 

 will dwell when liberated woman acts as the equal 

 comrade and directing genius of man. He sees afar 

 of! the coming of the woman of the future, with her 

 loftier aspirations and her nobler sentiments, who lives 

 the whole of her life, who is stronger and freer than tlic 

 woman of to-day, and who will be the great distributress 

 of happiness on earth. She will transform human 

 miseries into divine joys. The new woman is to 

 humanity what Beatrice was to Dante ; she is the 

 mystical goddess who is to restore to humanity har- 

 mony between the sexes, peace between the nations. 

 In his rapid an<i luminous .survey of the history of 

 woman in all .iges he finds everywhere reasons for 

 hope. 



The progress which has been made in.spircs him with 

 a belief thai it will proceed at an accelerated speed, 

 and the fact that woman has achieved so much in the 

 face of such obstacles seems to him the surest presage 

 of vast achievements still to come. M. Finot deals 

 with the whole sul)jecl with the uncompromising 

 frankness of a Frenchman. He deals with woman 

 from a biologicid, psy( hological and physiological point 



of view. He discus.ses the differences of the two sexes 

 from A to Z. It is impossible to do more than merely- 

 indicate the wide scope in this remarkable work, and 

 express a strong opinion that the sooner it is translated 

 into English the better. It is a book which should 

 be on the table of everyone who sympathises with the 

 women's movement. 



Politically, of course. M. Finot is a thoroughgoing 

 Suffragist, but his book covers a much wider range. 

 He maintains' that it is within the capacity of women to 

 achieve greatness in every department of life, and he 

 uncompromisingly asserts that what are regarded as 

 their characteristic weaknesses, vices and failings can 

 be explained by their environment and their history. 

 He is full of exultant joy as to the better time that is 

 coming when the-historv of woman will cease to be a 

 long martvrology. when she will be allowed an even 

 chance w ith man to develop her faculties and exercise 

 her genius. Whether the reader agrees with M. Finot or 

 not, he cannot help but be carried along by the 

 glowing stream of his genius and eloquent enthusiasm. 

 M. Finot is as witty as he is wise, and woman, indeed, 

 may be congratulated on the courage, audacity and 

 chivalry of her champion. 



Great is the contrast when we turn to Mr. Harold 

 Owen's statement of the case for the prosecution. 



Mr. Harold Owen, in his " Woman .\drift " (Stanley 

 Paul and Co. 6s.), describes what he considers to be 

 the menace of sufTragism. He dedicates the book to 

 his mother's memory, and he devotes eighteen chapters 

 and over 300 pages to a demonstration of how little 

 his mother must have led him to respect the intellect, 

 judgment, and the character of women. 



In his introduction Mr. Owen admits that the cause 

 of Woman Suffrage was nev'er taken seriously by the 

 country until the militant " Suffragettes " compelled 

 w hat he calls a " wholly factitious advance to be made." 

 No one denies that the cause has since made progress, 

 n it had not we should not now be discussing it. 

 Mr. Owen is a man with the courage of his convictions, 

 and he states his ca.se with uncompromising force and 

 vigour. I specially commend his ( haptcr on " Super- 

 fluous Woman " to the tender consideration of all 

 women who have recently begun to imagine that they 

 counted for something in the State. The sum and 

 substance of that chapter is that woman is wholly 

 superfluous to the State, excepting as a bearer of 

 children and a nursing mother. The Suffragist 

 societies would do well to reproduce this chapter as 

 a specimen of the case against them .as it is put bv 

 their thoroughgoing opponents. 



.Mr. Owen may not think it, but he and his book are 

 justifications of militant tactics. It was preci.sely the 

 insolent refusal of man to argue seriously the claims 

 put forward by woman to full citizenship that necessi- 

 tated those tactics, which have at least done this— they 

 have brought Mr. Owen out into the open. They 

 have compelled him to stale, as he h;is done, the 

 reasons why men despise women and consider them- 

 selves justified in maintaining absolute power in their 



