Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/239

 SUGGESTION 221

biological differences at any rate are closely associated with biological peculiarities which doubtless modify to some extent the mental operations of men and women. But into that somewhat obscure question we are not called to go. The greater suggestibility of women is certainly due in the main to the more limited range of their activities, and to the inferior education which as a rule they have received. From the beginning of human society women have moved in a narrower and more monotonous circle of experience than men, and for ages it was not felt that education was a part of the appropriate preparation for their function in life. They have been regarded as subject to men. In regard to most matters a woman s mental life was simply the echo or shadow of the opinions and beliefs of the men of her group, and, if she were married, those of her husband in par ticular. To be suggestible was regarded as one of her chief feminine excellencies. In politics, in religion, in general views of life she was expected to reflect the ideas of the men on whom her life was dependent. In certain peculiarly sexual virtues alone was she expected to be superior to them, but at the same time was not expected to be intolerant of their dereliction. The status of women is much the same even today, although it has been greatly modified in some parts of the world.

The education which they have received has been such as fitted in with this conception of their relation to the other sex. It was long after extensive provision for the educa tion of men had become a settled social policy before schools for women were established ; and then the courses of study provided for them were not selected with a view to the de velopment of their rational powers, but aimed rather at equipping them with certain &quot; accomplishments &quot; which would supplement their natural graces and reinforce their personal charms, but leave them deficient in mental organ ization and for the most part innocent of ideas. In some parts of the world a great change, amounting almost to a revolution, has been witnessed in the last forty years. But

�� �