Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/232

216 Mr. Ruge would not lapse into such inconsistencies if instead of his dry, scholastic, Hegelian standard of judging woman, he were aided by that living, spiritual relationship, through which Goethe first became Goethe, and through which he attained that wonderful appreciation of the feminine nature. I would call this capacity — which is generally quite complimentary to us, termed the "feminine element," although a perfect man cannot be conceived of without it, any more than a perfect woman — the aesthetic soul. Whoever does not possess this aesthetic soul, upon which the direct appreciation of all higher natures depends, or whoever has killed it within himself, by the gymnastics of abstract thought, he will in vain attempt to fill this idealism, about which Mr. Ruge is so anxious, with living contents. And if Mr. Ruge limits it to the masculine world, it becomes more than ever a forced abstraction, or an empty illusion. Strike us women from your account, and then try to construct your idealism! Even without Goethe, I should know, and have the courage to say, that the masculine world of to-day is, with few exceptions, nothing but a world of philistines; and even if I did not say it — very well, Mr. Ruge himself has indirectly told me so. I quote his words:

"Women are essentially attracted by position,