Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/241

 SUGGESTION 223

irrationalities in the fashions of female dress which sud denly sweep over the civilized world and as suddenly give way to some other &quot; mode,&quot; perhaps even more absurd than that which it replaces. But here also is noticeable a limita tion of their suggestiblity. If they are disposed to accept uncritically the views of the men who possess their loyalty in matters of theological anl political opinion and the gen eral theory of life, their minds are quite closed to sugges tions from the same source as to fashion in dress. Here without question they follow other gods, unless we except a certain class of &quot; new women &quot; who in their ambition to enjoy the privileges of masculinity try to ape the dress of men. Within the range of their experience and knowledge and about matters which they have come to think of as within their peculiar sphere of life, they are no more sug gestible than men. It is not a question of the comparative mental ability of men and women, but of the comparative range of their experience and interests ; and from the origin of society women have been confined within a much nar rower and more monotonous circle of life. Always and everywhere persons so situated are readily influenced by means of suggestion, and especially so if the suggestion is concerning matters outside the range of their experience. The mental organization of such persons is of a lower grade, however great may be their natural capabilities. It is in contact with a varied and stimulating environment, either in first-hand experience or through literature or preferably in both ways that the mental life becomes highly and pro portionately organized and susceptibility to suggestion cor respondingly reduced.

But sometimes it happens that persons who live in an extensive and stimulating environment, who have varied contacts with the world and read much, are nevertheless un usually susceptible. They have many ideas, but their mental life never loses its chaotic, loosely correlated, ununi- fied character; and they remain especially suggestible. Doubtless their weakness is due to some constitutional de-

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