Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/510

 lesser submission of the flesh to the spirit, especially—woman's chief characteristic—a lesser faith in the commands of reason.

The greatest number of sufferings which result from the intercourse of men and women result from the absolute misunderstanding of one sex by the other.

Very few men understand what children mean to a woman, what place they occupy in her life; and still fewer women understand what the duty of honour, the social duty, the religious duty, mean to a man.

A man may understand, though he has never been pregnant or borne a child, that it is hard and painful to be pregnant and to bear a child, and that it is an important matter; but there are extremely few women who will understand that spiritually to carry and bring forth a new conception of life is a hard and an important matter. They will understand it for a minute, but immediately forget it. And the moment their cares, even if it be of their household, of their attire, appear on the scene, they can no longer remember the reality of men's convictions, and all that appears to them as an unreal invention in comparison with cakes and pieces of chintz.

I have been struck by the thought that one of the chief causes of an inimical feeling between husbands and wives is their rivalry in the matter of conducting their family.

The wife must not recognize her husband as sensible and practical, because, if she did so, she would have to do his will, and vice versa.

If I were now writing the Kreutzer Sonata, I would bring this out.

The insipidity of our life is due to the power of the women; but the power of the women is due to the in-