The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1881-05-11


senses in any of the relations Of life. Even
the average man has noble instincts, mental
tastes and desires, and is often drawn
to women with more understanding and
enlightenment than he owns himself. He
likes them when intellectual better than he
knows, for he frequently fails to penetrate
the special source of their Willingness.
While many an intellectual or scholarly
woman is tedious, ungraceful, unlovable, it
is apt to be because she lacks other qualities
of an. inviting kind. She is not in herself
too intellectual or scholarly, but her intel
lect or scholarship is wholly disproportioned
to her amiabllity, tact. sympathy, refine
ment, vivacity, or some other charm of her
sex. Such woman is apt to be unbal-
snced, to make constant display Of her men
tai gifts and requirements, and to become
unpleasant on this account. Any man OF
that order would be prosy and wearisome
likewise, so that it is want of harmony and
discipline, not the presence of intellect,
with such combinations, constitutes uninter-
estingness. The intellectual woman that most
of us hold in our Imagination, is of the stamp
named. She talks eruditely Of trihes; her
erudition is out of place, she is ponderous
she is careless and without taste in dress;
she needs softness, affection, femininity She
appears to be Of the nuter gender, she ex-
cites antagonism, and is usually a voted
bore.
That is type of the past, if such intel
lectual women ever existed, and it has come
down to US with numberless ironical illus
trations. 1t is the blue-stocking of another
era, with inky fingers, hair disheveled, awk-
ward gait, harsh voice, repellant manner.
The blue-stocking of to-day is silken one,
and it often covers handsome ankle. The
intellectual woman Of the latter half of this
century has little resemblance to the semi
fanciful being of bygone age. She is not
shut up with musty books from morning to
nipht; she does not look at life through blue
glasses; she is not a marvel of uncouthness
She is known and enjoyed in society; the at
mosphere of the drawing room is congenial
to her, she has too much mind to
attempt its exhibition. Her under
standing has ripened; her nature is mellow;
good sense and delicate instinct are her por-
ton. She is so soundly intellectual that her
intimates seldom think of her as specially
intellectual They see and feel the result of
her intellect, and are wildly conscious of its
charm. 1t shows in her judgment, her taste
her opinions, her courtesy, in the aroma of
her presence and influence.
The intellectual woman, as she is now
does not depend on youth and freshness for
her high acceptance. She keeps her adj
mirers when there are lines in her face and
silver in her hair. They who deem it
privilege to be her friends hardly remember
she is no longer young, and if they do, can
not be persuaded that she was ever lovelier
than in her noble maturity. She draws
dull, ordinary men, not less than bright, re-
markable men; but neither class considers
intellect the secret of her magnetism. In
tellect is her animating principal; it informs
her life, shapes her purposes, controls her
impulses, adjusts her to surroundings. In
tellect often ,hardens man by suppressing his
emotions, by training him to feel through
his mind, by steadily chilling his blood. 1t
acts differently on the majority of women,
and acts in their behalf by increasing their
spiritual strength and insight, and rounding
their character. The most observing of us
seldom suspect, even in our daily intercourse
with them, how many delightful women of
our acquaintance owe their delightfulness
both directly and indirectly to their intel
lect.
Woman's intellect is great preserver of
attractiveness, and an augmenter Of it, too.
Physical beauty has always been glorified
in woman; but there is doubt if it is so al
Turing, even while it lasts, as intellect. 1t
may inspire passion; it may intoxicate; it
may madden; yet il reacts and is liable to
pail, and the pail of beauty is permanent
and distressing Intellect, on the other
hand, tends to swesten, purify, to expand,
elevate; it is not fire, but it may restrain
fire and direct it TO fine and ample use. 1t
is so wholesome and corrective of weakness
wsywardness, all manner of folly. indeed,
that 1t is capable of working revolutions in
every nature. Many woman exemplifies
this. In youth her intellect may not b, de-
veloped, but at maturity it is dominant
enough to give new tone and temper to her
entire being, TO lend her serenity, an equi-
poise, an agreeableness that had not before
been visible. The late-lingering charm of
certain women is frequently wondered at
and never explained. 1t is ascribed to tact,
insight, amiabiity, social experiences; it
may be due to something of each or all of
these; but these are due to intellect.
Much of the old prejudice against intel
lectual woman remains, because the average
man continues to regard them as insepa-
rable from bookish dowdies and pedantic
cyclists, from tumbled hair, soiled cuffs, and
personal intelligence. He has not learned
that intellect no longer expresses Itself-if,
in truth, it ever did-in such form and
fashion. He may have an intellectual wife
and be ignorant of the fact, since she fails to
discuss Greek roots and comic sections,
and since she fully appreciates the advantage
of clothes. His romantic devotion to her
is preverbial; he rejoices in the consciousness
that he loves her, often years after marriage,
more than he loved her on the wedding day.
He never imagines that he is under the per-
manent spell OF her intellect, and there are
thousands of men OF his nebulous intelli-
gence. The woman who knows how to use
her intellect has guarantee for the final
loyalty Of her lover or husband. He may
swerve or wander, but she can be patient
and undisturbed; the forcs of her mind
working at a distance, will in due time bring
the truant. contrite and sschagrined, to her
ever-welcome arms.
The intellectual woman, properly bal
anced, is, in all the relations of life, the best
and longest loved, and is always most genial
and attractive He who declares that be
detests intellectual women simply means that
he detests the ostentation of intellect, the
self-consciouness of undigested information
When he meets really intellectual woman
he is likely to think her charming from lack
of intellect. He is too biased 10 comprehend
that it is her intellect that gives her charm
If most men who are still in love with their
wives could make the last analysis of their
fascination, they would be pretty certain to
find its chief source TO be harmonious intel
lect.