The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1882-09-28
WOman's Unsclflsllpess.


we all feel that selfishness is not char
acteristic of race. But this observation
suggests one striking exception to its gen.
eral drift. You may say one person is
more selfish than another, but YOU may
not say this of any group Of persons Til
you come to the very largest into which
you can divide the PERSONAL world. II
Is not easy to make any generalization
about men and women for every one is
either man or woman, and knows his
or her own sex in different degree from
what he does the opposite; but we think
the general opinion may, in this case, be
taken as its own Justification and it
appears to us that in some respects this
great distinction exhibits what we mean
by the antithesis of truth and Of char-
ty, or of what we have called the non.
preferential element in love. Men are
about rs much more true than women, rs
women are more unselfish than men.
We do not mean that If you could reckon
up all the lics that are told in a yenr,
you would ind that the greater number
had female origin. When it comes
to conscious deceit, We should suppose
that men and women are pretty much
alike. We mean tina! mans words and
thoughts ordinarily stand in a much
closer relation to life than woman's do,
and that to some exten. this explains his
being much less ready to mako sacrifices
than woman is. For the habit of as
snming any excellence has opposite
effects, according 10 the gap between our
moral position and that excellence. We
actually widen the chasm, if it be already
80 wide that the profession must be called
false. But sincere words are actions;
and in protesting readiness for sclf.de.
nial, even without knowing fully what il
il, we may, to some extent, approach it.
1t is not possible to imagine a person
bound over to selfsacri6cing life by
professions that might be called unreal.
Every human being must discover, when
it comes to the point, that the expecta-
tion of surrendering the pleasant things
of life without reluctance or difficulty is
nero ignorance of what sacrifice means,
but an engagement 10 betray no reluc.
tance or difficulty mag possibly tend to
diminish these feelings unless they be
ve:y great. And, in fact, there is great
deal of this kind of unselfishness among
omen-faithfulness, we mean, to an
ideal that is to some extent illusory. "In
matter 80 utterly insignificant as any
thing personal to ones self" as we once
hC$ho OAHU OJ ~ utlu CulllYaleu
woman. zone would not, Of course think
it worth while to hesitate" The life,
long since concluded, was not by any
means in such glaring contradiction with
that piece of fantastic morality as we
should be apt to imagine. And perhaps
many of the Inconsistencies we find in
complex human nature may be explained
by remembering that it is not impossible
that both these effects should be found
in the same person, so that at one mo-
ment n women should be more unselfsh
because she has put herself in position
in which self.sacriice is necessity, and
that the next moment her natural impul.
ses should yet rush hack upon her with
rebound, and her professed readiness to
share crust with her husband should
no more suggest any sacrifice Of her
wishes to his, than the sight Of "your
obedient servant" at the end of letter
suggests the discharge of some menial
Office. In that iluctuating ebb and flow
which re know as character, the innu.
ence of exaggerated professions may
tend both to weaken and to strengthen
our moral life, and none but the eye tn at
reads oil hearts can discern which infu-
ence is to give the ultimate bias 10 the
spirit which feels both