Page:Wilde - A Woman of no Importance, 1909.djvu/130

RhACT III. LORD ILLINGWORTH You should never try to understand them. Women are pictures. Men are problems. If you want to know what a woman really means—which, by the way, is always a dangerous thing to do—look at her, don't listen to her.

GERALD But women are awfully clever, aren't they?

LORD ILLINGWORTH One should always tell them so. But, to the philosopher, my dear Gerald, women represent the triumph of matter over mind—just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.

GERALD How then can women have so much power as you say they have?

LORD ILLINGWORTH The history of women is the history of the worst form of tyranny the world has ever known. The tyranny of the weak 112