Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1881-04-30
Have Women IntuitiODs9- They See
Deeper Than Menu

1T is very, generally. assumed that
women are superior to men in their in
buttons. We are told continually by
novelists, social essayists, and would-be
philosophers of the drawing-room that,
while man is forced to reach conclusions
by laborious processes of reasoning,
woman leaps to hers by swift and ans
erring intuition. This thing has been
asserted so often that many people ac-
eept it as aimatter of course : we do not
remember, indeed, of ever hearing the
assertion disputed.
Nevertheless we believe the theory to
be entirely without support. There is,
not only not the slightest evidence in its
favor, but all the facts distinctly indicate
that ;hereis nc, such thing 10. declare
that women have the power of perceivl
ing facts or acquiring true knowledge by
intuition is to endow them with sixth
sense; to equip them in way that must
necessarily give them an advantage over
men in nearly all the affairs of life. In
such a case, women would be safer
guides than men in almost everything,
and especially in those things unsuscep-
tible of proof, in which we are necessa-
rily governed by our impressions.
Women ought to be, admitting this
theory to be true, much better judges OF
character than men. They would be fur
nished with means for more prompt de-
cision in many emergencies They would
make fewer mistakes in social questions.
They would be better protected against
the designsof scoundrels. They would
be less susceptible to decisions of the
senses, and less easily led away by false
logic. Intuitional perceptions being the
operation of natural force, women who
possess them would not only be able to
reach results sooner than men, but their
conclusions would be more sound and
trustworthy. ta .3ti =
For to reason rightly requires training
and experience, and, consequently, while
men with little experience and no train
ing would stumble greatly in their efforts
to sift evidence and arrive at Che truth,
women would commonly be right off
hand. To state the proposition fully is
really to prove its absurdity. But let us
see how intuition serves women in affairs
|
detect in the other sex a special fitness
for dealing with the problems of life, big
or little. 't'at, EfI fIrftbl {
If women have intuitional percep-
tons, they ought to be very successful
spectators, and, though they can not
well 90 into Wall Street themselves,
Wall Street men would be sure in such
a case to. act solely by the advice and
direction of their wives and, if married
brokers awaited themselves of this pow.
er at their hand they would soon drive
bachelor brokers out of the field, or al
least into matrimony. If it were true
no politician would ever make a move
without having first consulted the intu
itions of some accomplished woman. @
Women have sometimes acted wist
parts in politics, and some successful
men have acknowledged the happy aiC
rendered by their wives; but in these
occasional instances the women have
possessed superior intellect and gooC
reasoning powers; they have, we MAJ
be sure, aided the men along the line
the men have worked they have helped
them to their ends by the highway o
reason and judgment, and not seduceC
them into morasses by promises of mys
FERROUS short cuts.
In ordinary business there is no evi
: dence that intuition is worth anything
much less equal in value to experience
or that it can in any way be substituted
for it. The trader, man or woman, who
instead of studying the market
bought and sold by intuition, woul,
soon go to wreck. In domestic lif
women do not secure more trust
friends than men do; they are not NOR
successful than men in selecting serv
ants; they do not adjust themselye
more happily to the tempers and fail
. ings of companions, nor more quick
perceive the consequences of a mis-
t spoken word, nor read character NOR
9 accurately, nor exhibit more insight in
, to the future than the masculine Sc
does. r..s.tt
In all these things there are great dill
, fereDces in individuals, but there is n
< evidence on record attainable to sho,
S that the difference separates along tn
line of the sex, and it is VIGOROUSLY tn
d woman and not the man who is deceive
g by the soft manners and oily pretension
!, of the quack; it is the woman Away
e who is overcome by the hypocriticf
y functions of the Rev. Honeymahs.
And now we reach the most decide
test of all. The most important ever
in the life of a woman is the selection
l. husband. In nothing else would tn
,. power of intuitional perception have
"a better opportunity to evince itself, or b
: of greater service to the possessor.
d This may be fairly called q critic;
! test; and the moment we apply it "
n see that the theory falls to the groun
VI utterly. That men, who confessed
"a are without iutuitions, often make sa
q mistakes in selecting their lfe-compal
" ions we all know; but do they err 8
" frequently US women doP Men are ofte
+. fascinated by bad women, delude
h by selfish, wrong-hearted women; bt
"a of all hopeleSsly blind creatures there
# none to equal young woman enan
a, ored of an unworthy man.
70 Sometimes it is smooth and plaus
10 BILE rake; sometimes snowy, innatel,
a. vulgar fellow, with bad habit and atrC
a. cious tastes sometimes a man whos
.. fiber is coarse, and who is sure to d
PC velop into brutal and tyrannical ma
. ter; sometimes it is man whose Co
II and selfish heart is for The moment col
q cealed under the affectation of sympatf
Il, and affection. In whatever guise
w comes, the woman, in majority
4 instances, is utterly deluded.
" She fails to see the mask, or to dete
the rnal chnranter thai il hides 81