THE WOMAN OF EVOLUTION AND PESSIMISM. 



315 



It is not just to regard the male as the normal type 

 of humanity, and woman as a modification or degrada- 

 tion of it. 



"Woman is not undeveloped man, but diverse." 



Each sex is differentiated, in its degree, 



Woman not un- frQm thg intermediate unsex ed type, 



developed man. , . ,- . , . 



which ot itseli never existed, save in 



the one-celled protozoan. 



Because of the needs of life, man has been differ- 

 entiated in motor directions, woman in directions of 

 feeling and response. Man has been compelled to face 

 external Nature. Woman must face humanity. Thus 

 the initiative in action is thrown more and more on the 

 male; the response of feeling on the female. 



In this division of labour mental and physical char- 

 acters are correlated. Women excel in delicacy, in de- 

 votion, in sympathy. They are not noted as explorers 

 of new fields. As investigators, inventors, judges, or 

 warriors their efforts are on the whole ineffective. Such 

 activities are not in the line of duty assigned them 

 in the division of labour. As defender of the young, 

 the female puts the male to shame. No creature is so 

 dangerous as the female beast at bay. The defender of 

 the young or the weak must be a partisan, not a judge. 



If we can use such terms in relation to a process of 

 Nature, we may say that the noblest results of evolu- 

 tion are to be found in the altruism of parenthood. 

 The development of the " eternal womanly," the dif- 

 ferentiation of the mother and wife, 



The altruism of carries within itgelf the full compe nsa- 

 parenthood. 



tion for all that it has cost. 



As against this view which I have briefly presented 

 it may be interesting to contrast the view of woman 

 presented by the philosophy of pessimism, through its 

 ablest exponent, Arthur Schopenhauer. 



