Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/249

 A. W. BENN : this as high as ever you please, and the inference will still remain irresistible, that, having advanced so far without their help or even in spite of their opposition and, what is more, having compelled them to follow us, we shall be able to pursue our onward journey with no more difficulty than before. But the evidence offered for this intensity of female conserva- tism is such as to make us doubt its reality ; for a cause which so powerful a logician can defend by no stronger arguments than are here adduced must be weak indeed. Apart from the common- places of the subject, most stress is laid on two considerations : the constancy of women as evinced, among other authorities, by English fiction, and the character of that fiction itself. The first argument is entirely beside the question, for constancy is a virtue even more necessary to the friends of progress than to its foes, and just as likely to be exercised on its behalf. The second argument must detain us longer. English fiction, we are told, while "ever more written by women and read by increasing multitudes of women" (p. 141), is inseparably wedded to old- fashioned ideas. Studied alone, " the very last impression it would produce would be that we had lived in an age of feverish progress " (p. 140). A more astounding assertion has seldom been made. For, considered simply as an art, English fiction has passed since the beginning of the century through various stages of evolution involving vast and continuous changes in the choice of subjects, in the mode of treatment, in the underlying concep- tion of life ; while in this evolution at least two women have played a decisive part. And, besides this movement of its own, English fiction has reflected every other contemporary movement, practical or speculative, the ambition of the most recent writers being to reproduce with photographic fidelity every tendency of the time. With regard to the opinions of the novelists themselves we have Sir H. Maine's own authority, if any authority be needed, for the fact that Dickens, the most popular writer of his age, devoted his life to the reform of abuses (p. 153) ; and Mr. Wilkie Collins, whom a recent plebiscite has declared to be the most popular of living novelists, has followed in the same track. Among the most distinguished lady-novelists of the day, at least one is a democrat, a socialist and an agnostic ; and, speaking generally, no motive is more hackneyed than the exaltation of the poor at the expense of the great, the titled and the rich. It is true that ridicule is sometimes thrown on reformers ; but that is because the novelist makes it his business to exhibit the ludicrous side of everything, and a laugh is at least as often raised at the expense of bigotry and obstruction as of needless or precipitate subversion. The fact that women change the fashion of their dress much more frequently than men seems at first sight somewhat inconsis- tent with the theory that they are absolutely intolerant of inno- vation. Sir H. Maine notices the objection, but is ready with an explanation. What we call new fashions, he tells us, are not