Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-12-13
THE MYSTERIOUS IN WOMAN.

THE MYSTERIOUS IN WOMAN.
Is There Something Inexplicable About
Her for Science to Explain.
There appears to be a great quantity Of
conceit around, especially concerning women.
The statement was recently set ahoat that q
well known lady had admitted that George
Meredith understands women better than
any writer who has preceded him. This
may be true, and it may be willy statement
to again throw men OF the track; at any rate
it contains the old assumption of mystery,
practically insoluble about the gentler sex.
Women generally encourage this notion, and
men, by their gingerly treatment of it, seem
to accept it. But it is well founded.
Is there any more mystery about women
than about meni Is the feminine nature any
more difficult to understand than the maScu-
line natures Have women, conscious Of in
ferior strength, woven this notion of mystery
about themselves as q defense. or have men
simply idealized them for fictitious purposesi
To recur to the case cited, is there any evil
dence that Mr. Meredith understands human
nature as exhibited in women any better
than human nature in men, or Is more con-
sistent in the production of one than of the
other2
Historically il would be interesting to trace
the rise of this notion Of women as an eng
ma. The savage races do not appear to have
it. A woman to the North American Indian is
IA simple affair, dealt with without circumlo-
cution. In the Bible records there is not much
mystery about her; there are many tributes
TO her noble qualities. and some pretty severe
and uncompiinentary things are said about
Der, but there Is little affectation of not I'M
derstandfng her She may be prophecies
or o CONSIDER or a snare, but she is no more
''decltful and desperately wicked" than any
body else.
There is nothing mysterious about her first
recorded performance. Eve trusted the SER
pent and Adam trusted Eve. The mystery
was in the serpent. There is no evidence
tilat the ancient Egyptian woman was more
difficult TO comprehend than the Egyptian
man. They were both doubtless willy, as
highly civilized people are apt TO be; the
serpent of old Nile" was in them both.
Is it, in fact, till we come to medieval
times and the chivalric age that women are
set UP as being more incomprehensibie than
men' That is, less logical more whimsical.
more uncertain in their mental processes
The playwriters and essayists Of the Seven
teenth and Eighteenth centuries worked
this notion continually. They always took
an investigating and specializing attitude
toward women that fostered the conceit OF
their separateness and yelled personality.
Every woman was supposed TO be playing a
part behind a mask.
Montaigne is always investigating woman
as mystery. 1t is, for instance mystery
he does not relish that, as he says, women
commonly reserve the publication of their
vehement affections for their husbands till
thew have lost them: then the woful counte-
nance looks not so much back as forward,
and is intended rather to get new husband
than to lament the old" And he tells this
story:
when l was boy, very beautiful and
virtuous lady, who is yet living, and the
widow of prince, had, know not what
more ornament in her dress than our laws
of widowhood will well allow, which being
reproached with as great indecency, she
made answer that it was because she was
not cultivating more friendships and would
never marry again )" This cynical view Of
woman, as well as the ertravagautly cornpli-
mentary one sometimes taken by the poets,
was based upon the notion that woman was
an unexplainsble being. When she herself
adopted the idea is uncertain.
OF course, all this has very practical bear
ing upon modern life, the position Of women
In it, and the 50 called reforms. II woman II
50 different from man, to the extent OF being
an unexplainable mystery, science ought TO
determine the exact state Of the case and
ascertain il there is any remedy for II. II 1t Is
only a literary creation, we ought to know IL
Science could tell, for instance, whether there
is a pecaliarity in the nervous system, any
complications in the nervous ccnters, by
which the telegrapnic action Of the VIII ssts
crossed. 50 that, for example, in reply to .
proposal Of marriage, the intended Yes
gets delivered No
Is i. true that the mental process il one sex
Is intritive and In the other logical, with every
link necessary and visi5les Is II uue, IS the
ronAncers teach, that the mind In one sex
acts indirectly and il the other directly or u
this indirect process only characteristics Of
exceptions In both seIesi Investigation ought
to find this out, 50 that we can adjust the Ct
occupations for both sexes on sclentii!c
baas We are EouRdering abo9: now IN a
sea OF doubt As society becomes more com
piieated women VIII become . greater and
greater mystery or rather viii be regarded
20 By themselves AID De treated % by men
VINO en- tel how much this notion a mrs.
terry in ths sax stands in tbs way o. its fres
advancement al along the hnef Suppose TIE
proposal were made TO woman 70 excnanss
being uysesrio1s fer tie ballot Would fhsy
Do III Or have they . se1se o. power in ;hs
possession q this conceded tacoupreeenEha-
i.y tnat thew would 10. lar down for any
visible insignia q ths. po~sri Ans Il "a
novelists AID czSsylsts have RAISED n1ist
about the sax which Il willingly rlas7us-s1ss
in. Is IL rot time ;ast ioe sciszslst< sxoa1d 60
termine Whether tie rnyssery exists In aas1rs
- oaiy in the Imagination I-CEzrles Dudley