New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-12-14

establishment as feminine faculty. O.
dinarily, this feminine faculty, showing i
self in an aptitude for guessing the state {
mind through the external signs, ends sin
| ply in intuitiOns formed without assignab
reasons; but when, as happens in rare case
there is joined with it skill in psychologist;
analysis, there results an extremely remarl
able ability to interpret the mental state
Of others. OF this ability We have Twin
example never hitherto parallefed anon
women, and in but few, il any, cases o.
ceeded among men.
OF course, it is not asserted that the sp'
! cialties of mind here described as havip
been developed in women, by the necessitie
of defense in their dealings with men, ar
peculiar to them In men also they hay
been developed as aids to defense IN thei
dealings with one another. But the differ
| ence is that, whereas in their dealings wit
one another men depended on these aids on
in some measure. women, in their dealing
| with men, depend upon them almost who'll
| within the domestic circle as we'll as with
out il. HENCE, in virtue of that partia
limitation of hereditary by sex, which man
facts thronghou nature show US, they hav
| come to be more marked In women than il
| men.
| One further distinctive mental trait il
| women springs out of the relation OF TIT
| sexes as adjusted to the welfare of the race
| l cefer to the effect which the manifestation
| of power Of every kind has in determining
| the attachments of women. That this is
trait inevitably produced will be manifest
| on asking what would have happened il
women had by preference attached them
solves to the weaker men. II the weaker
men bad habitually left posterity when the
stronger race did not progressive deterio
ration of the race would have resulted.
Clearly, therefore, it has happened lat least
since the cessation of marriage by capture
or by purchase has allowed femin Ne choice
to play an important part) that, among wO-
men unlike in their tastes. those who were
fascinated by power, bodily or mental, and
who married men able to protect them and
their children, were more likely to survive
IN posterlty than women to whom weaker
men were pleasing, and whose children
were both less efficiently guarded and less
capable of preservation if they reached
maturity.
To this admiration for power, caused thus
inevitably, is ascribable the fact, sometimes
commented upon as strange, that women
will continue attached to men who use them
Ill, butt whose brutality goes along with
power, more than they will continue at
tached to weaker men who use them well.
With this admiration of power, primarily
having this function, there goes the admira-
ton of power in general, which is more
marked in women than in men, and shows
itself both theologically and politically.
That the emotion of awe aroused by con-
templating whatever suggests transcendant
force or capacity, which constitutes religious
feeling, is strongest IN women is proved il
many ways. We read that among the
Greeks the women were more relgiously
excitable than the men. Sir Rutherford
Alcock tells US of the Japanese that ''in the
temples it is very rare to sec any cOngrega-
ton except women and children; the men at
any time are very few, and these generally
of the lower classes"
OF the pilgrims to the temple of the jug
gernauts, it is stated that Sat least i've
sixths, and often nine-tenths of them are
females" And we are also told of the
Sikhs, that the women believe i'll more gods
than the men do. Which facts, coming
from different races and times, sufficiently
show us that the like fact, familiar to us
in Roman Catholic countries, and to some
extent at home, is not, as many think, due
to the education of women, but has deep
er cause in natural character. And to this
same cause is in like manner to be ascribed
the greater respect felt by woman for all
and symbols Of authority,
governmental and social.
Thus the priori inference, that fitness for
their respective parental functions implies
mental differences between the sexes, as it
implies Bodily differences, is justified; as is
alsO the kindred inference that secondary
differences are necessitated by their rela-
lions to one another. Those unlikenesses
Of mind between men and women, which,
under the conditions, were to be expected,
are the unlikenessas we actually find. That |
they are fixed in degree by no means fol |
ows; indeed, the contrary follows. Deter
mined as we see they some of them are by |
adaptation of primitive wOmen's natures to !
,he natures OF primitive men, it is inferable |
hat as civilization readjusts mems natures |
20 higher social requirements, there goes |
IN corresponding REIMBURSEMENT between |
he natures of men and women, tending |
n sundry respects to diminish their
differences. Especially may we an
developed in women, as aids to defense
Igaipst men in barbaI GUS times, will dimin
sh. 1t is probable, too, that, though all
,inds Of power will continue TO be attrac-
i've to them, the attractiveness of physical
treDgth, and the mental attributes which
oDduce to social influence will become
1ore attractive. Further, it is to be antici-
ated that the higher culture of women,
arried on within such limits as shall not
nduly tax the physique land here, by
igh"r culture, do not mean mere language
EARNING and AN extension OF the destesta-
le examining system at present in use),
ill, IN other ways, reduce the contrast. |
lOwly leading to the result every whe re
zen throughout the organic word Of self
deserving power inversely proporlionate
, the race preserving power, it will entail
less early arrest of Individual evolution,
I'd diminution of those mental differences
ut 8een men and women which the early
rest produces.
Admitting such to be changes which the
lture will probably see wrought out, we
ave mean while to bear in mind these traits
intellect and feeling which distinguish
omen aud take note of them as factors in
,cial phenomena-rnuch more import ant
ctors than We commonly suppose. Con
dering them in the above order, we may !
pie. first. that the love of the helpless,
hich in her maternal capacity woman dis
ays in a more special form than man,
evi'abiy affects all her thoughts and SEN
IneDts, and this being ,ired IN her with d
20 developed sentiment of abstract Justice,
IL responds more readily when appeals to
~ are made than when appeals are made
equity. In foregoing chapters we have
en- how much our social policy disregards
g claims of individuals to whatever their
forts purchase, SO long as no obvious mis-
y is brought on them by the disregard;
1t when individuals suffer in ways con-
rcuous enough to excite commlseratinn,
ey get aid and often az much aid if their
ferings are caused by themselves as if
ey are caused by Others-often, greater
4. indeed.
This social policy, to which men tend in
injurious degree, women tend to still
ore. The material instinct delights in
tiding benefits apart from deserts, and
ing partially excited by whatever shows
fee bleness that appeals for help (-uppos
lyfa Ioa nat bAu s..ll
rries into social action this preference I
generosity to justice, even more than
n DO. A further tendency having the
me general direction, results from the
iiiude which the feminine intellect has
dwell on the concerto and proximate