The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1890-06-15
GENIUS AND woMAN's INTUITION.

An interesting discussion has been
started by Grant Aliens proposition
that woman's intuition, when strongly
developed. is likely TO beget genius IN
her sou. He AYERS that men of genius
are generally born of women whose
intuitive faculties were exceptionally
strong.
Professor Lester +. Ward takes issue
with the great biologist, and AYERS that
the mothers of geniuses are, as a rule.
women Of exceptional culture.
Professor Ward has been geologist to
the United States coast survey. and Is
now honorary curator of botany and
fossil plants of the national museum.
He accounts for woman's intuition as
follows:
The power in woman OF instantan-
eous and accurate judgment as to what
to do when her salty or that of her
children is In jeopardy, WAS developed
during the early history of the human
race, as it emerged from the animal
into the properly human state its only
use was to protect the mother and the
young from such dangers as beset them
dangers which increased with the
growth of the intellectual faculty ami
the dispersion of the'race over the globe.
And with the origin and progress of
civilization this power has increased In
complexity, and has ever been the
safeguard of the family against
all. attacks, strifes and abuses,
from whatever quarter. In the
highest stages of enlightenment 1t still
comes daily and hourly into use in
guarding the virtue of woman, detect
ing fife infidelity of man. protecting
the youth of bctn sexes from tempta-
tiors and pitfalls of every kind, evad-
ing the wrongs of unjust husbands and
cruel fathers, checking dangerous finan-
cial extravaganza or undue llberility
in men, aud in a thousand other ways.
Upon such questions the Judgments OF
women seem TO be already formed IN
the mind, inherited as organized ex-
periences of an indefinite past, and
when an occasion arises they come
forth instaneously, without reflection
and without deliberatlon. The dangers
that have threatened woman and her
helpless charges throughout all her his
tory have usually left her no time for
these slower mental operations. She
must act at once or all is lost. and
natural selection has preserved those
who could thus act, so that in modern
society it is still true. and IN far wider
sense than Addison supposed, that
The woman that deliberates is lost
'Snch is the sphere-not an especial
ly narrow, but yet definitely circum'
scribed one-of woman's intuition, the
female instinct of self and race preser-
walton. But it must be remembered
that every instinct is developed in har-
mony with the particular environment
Of the creature. and that outside of
that environment it is useless. The
quality of being 'unerring, never fully
ATTAINED, is lost the moment the pos
SCISSOR Of an instinct is removed TO DIFF
ferent environment from that in CON
tract with which the instinct was de-
veloped. II is 50 with this adjunct Of
the maternal instinct which we call wo-
mans intuition. 1t has value and real
existence hnly within the sphere Of its
normal activity as above defined. Out
side of this sphere, the judgments Of
woman are no more 'unerring than
those of man. and to be equally accu-
rate and reliable. they require the same
data and the same reasoning processes
as do the conclusions at which men ar
rive upon the affairs of life"
Then he frames an argument to show
that woman 5 intuition is the opposite
of genius and does not tend to produce
II.
"Again..the faucied analogy between
woman ) intuition and the manifesto
tons of genius is not merely visionary
aud absurd: 1t Is an exact reversal OF
the true relations between these two
things. As already shown, and as was
necessary from the very way in which
and the purpose for which it was deyel-
oped, wOman's intuition is essentially
subjective and egOistlc. 1t has self, OF
what is scarcely distinct from self, for
its sole ject. IL is the safeguard of Its
pcssessOr's personality, the loudest de-
mand for individual existence, the
strongest assertion of the will to live,
aud the farthest possible remove from
the contemplation Of truth in any form
for its own sake and the concentration
of the mental faculties upon the ideal
and the abstract. This character it
maintains even in its highest phases,
and it becomes in civilized woman the
embodiment of all that is prcsy and
practical and the antithesis of all that
is poetical and aesthetic.
"Gepius is the precise opposite of all
this. 1t is purely objective and imper-
sonal: it ignores self and despises the
common things of life; it denies and
shuts out the will, and concentr ites the
whole being upon the purely ideal and
the purely abstract. In every depart
ment of art-sculpture. painting, poe
try, music-in literature, philosophy,
science, everywhere that true genius
finds room to assert itself, tue coarser
wants of the body are forgotten or sub
iugated. the love of life and the desire
for its enjoyment. preservation, and
perpetuatiou are suppressed, and every
thing that belongs to the world. or that
can be classed as practical, Is sacrificed
to the pursuit OF the ideal-of abstract
truth in form, color, sound, diction,
thought or fact.
1T is worth while to note here that
the true reason why women have al
ways seemed to possess so little genius,
relatively to men. IS the predomiDance
in them of this very intuitive faculty.
From its nature. as explained above, IL
is incompatible with the development
of great genius. and as the latter gains
the former must lose. Moreover, al
though genius is something more than
AN unlimited capacity for work. still
that hyperbole is calculated forcibly to
dispel the popular illusion that it Is IN
dependent of work. Ii presupposes not
only work. but the materials to work
with. Genius is the power to bring
truth out of facts. and all truth mast
rest upon basis of fact. Man has dis
PLAYED more genius than woman, large
ly because he hus been in possession Of
a wider range of facts, greater supply
of the only material out of which ge
MUS can construct aud create-viz.,
knowledge. And if woman is ever TO
display equal creative power, she. too.
must be supplied with the same kind OF
raw material for which no qualities of
mind can ever stand as substitute. y
Atlanta Constitution.
NATURALIsTs IN LITERATURE.