The Portland daily press., 1882-04-13

vague, metaphysical subjects are the theme Of
DISCOURSE they ought 10 be handled by women,
who are sure to adorn them with the brilliant
coruscatons of their fancy. III must listen to
Kantian, let tho speaker be woman, who
will attempt no more than she can perform.
Laying aside her logic, she sheds glow upon
her subject, and is satisfied, though the light
that was meant to illustrate it covers 1t with
beautiful colors that conceal IL. We cannot
solve "the problem of lifs' by looking outside
of creation. The woman intending 70 give us
view of it presents us with Kaleidoscope.
We look into il and behold some charming
pictures. The man, with the same intent,
hands us telescope. We look into it; bat
all we can see is multitudes Of other men look
ing through other telescopes in the same direc-
ton. r.
If we accept the fallaclous verbal distinctions
which are current at Delphi-such distinctions
as Butler ridculed and Coleridge nsed as the
staple OF his dsquistons; such as Byron spurn-
ed and Wordsworth lovingly embraced, but
now universally sanctioned by all who are In
side of the temple-it must be confessed that
female authors far surpass those of the other
sex in genius" By this remark do not in
tend either to compliment or to sur the sex.
Far be it from me to disparage the sex who are
the principal readers of my own books. l con-
fine myself to facts, and use no irony when
say that IL we make the Collridgean distinction
between genius and "talent" it must be con-
ceded that by far the greater amount Of gen.
ius is manifested by female authors, the best
male authors being possessed only OF talent.
Women write more spontaneously, with less
premeditated effort, than men; with less re-
Election upon the processes Of thought, both
during the conception and the evolution OF
their ideas; more decidedly as II inspired; not
carefully weighing either their words or
their thoughts before putting them on paper;
considering not SO much the effect they may
produce on the minds of Others as giving utter
to the fullness of their own minds. As, perhaps
MIR. j. Z. Lowell would say, the woman is con-
Hall hxrh aims. oy,6 Iaan aayf hat ha
who controls his genius most despotically has
the most intellectual power. Women have
more briliancy of illustration, more imagtna-
tive description, more ideaism, more spontan-
eousDess Of thought and expression, more copi-
BUSINESS of dctioa in every way.
1t is not An easy task to explain the differ
ence between masculine and feminine style
without examples. There is no prose writer ia
the English language whose diction Is 50 emil
nently characteristic OF the feminine style as
George Eliot. As a remarkable example of
this I refer the reader to "Romola," but partic-
ularly to the proem. / will quote the first par
agraph of the proem:
More than three centuries and half ago,
in the mid springtime of 1892, ne are sure thas
the star.quenching angel Of the dawn, as he
travelled with broad, slow wing from the Ie-
want to the Pillars of Hercules, and from the
SUBMITS of the Caucasus across all the snowy
Alpine ridges to the dark nakedness OF the
western isles. saw nearly the same outline OF
firm land and unstable sea-saw the same great
mountain shadows on the same valleys as he
has seen to-day--saw olive mounts and pine
forests, and the broad plains green with young
corn or rain-freshened grass-saw the domes
and spires of cities rising by the riye-sides or
mingled with the sedge-like masts on the many
curved sea coast, in the same spots where they
rise to-day. And as the faint light OF his
course pierced into the dwellings OF men, it fell
as n1w ON tie rosy warmth OF nesting chidren;
on the haggard waking Of sorrow aud sickness;
on the hasty uprising of the bard-handed lab
orer and on the late sleep of the night student
who had been questioning tina stars or the sages
or his own soul for that hidden knowledge
which would break through the barrier OF
mans brief life, and show its dark path, that
seemed to bend no wither, to be an arc in an
immeasurable circle Of light and glory. Tho
great river courses which have shaped the lives
of men have hardly changed; and those other
streams, the life currents that ebb and flow IN
human hearts, pulsate to the same great needs,
the same great loves and terrors. As one
thought follows close in the slow wake OF the
dawn we are impressed with the broad same
ness of the. human lot, which never alters in
the main headings Of its history-hunger and
labor, seed time and harvest, love and DEATH
4Delphi. L use this term TO express in one word
the grand fountain of literary cant and ahectatlon
WILSON FLAGG.