Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/305

Rh differences in intellection. This gentleness of woman has found its way into the argument as something definite, as a descriptive trait of character, yet by itself is nameless. Relating to woman as it chiefly does, it seems to consist of a mobility and pliability of character, an unconscious avoidance of harshness and fixity of thought. Not a want of fixity as indicating fickleness of character, but implying concessions to the wishes of others. This gentleness of mental habitude in women, which so clearly isolates the psychical condition of the sexes, finds its factor in sexual differences. Unavoidably, this takes approximate force. Reasoning cannot make it clearer that this type of woman is an expression of sex in mind. We see this feminine type of mind associated with certain bodily configurations which are equally expressive of sex. We also find exceptions to this form of sexual cerebration. There are women who approach more or less nearly in positiveness and habitual harshness to the masculine type. With this there is almost invariably associated masculine development of form. Masculine brawn, bone and muscle, shaded and toned down by the irrepressible presence of sex, define this phase of the feminine mind. The voice approaches a manly compass, the down upon the upper lip becomes short, delicate hairs; the stature exceeds the average of woman's; the limbs are muscular and strong. With these bodily powers of aggression there is a natural outgrowth of mental belligerence. This is a law of Nature. The man who shrinks from a physical contest with his fellows is one of conscious bodily weakness. His body measures, therefore, the extent of mental aggressiveness. Not necessarily do these women possess the male intellect; they simply approach the male type in this single aspect of their characters, other and equally feminine attributes of mind existing in full force. But, as demonstrating a sexual origin for this traditional and actual gentleness of the female mind, the fact that certain departures from the typical feminine form are associated with equally positive analogies to the typical masculine mind, seems to me to be conclusive.

These two conditions of mind existing in full force tend to place the sexes at the opposite poles of human actions, that of demanding and yielding, that of giving and receiving. George Eliot is right in saying that this feature of mental character supersedes all acquisitions, all artificial acquirements. Education and refinement may lend it additional attractiveness, but it is a primordial sexual trait of mind—the brightest gem in woman's chaplet of mental charms, around which may cluster other and equally attractive traits without impairing its lustre.

I believe it to be evident that the opposite psychical conditions of the sexes under consideration determine for men and women their careers in society—to one the strife and struggle with the world, to the other the gentle occupations of the home. From the male sex we may obtain a forcible example of how potent is the sexual factor in