The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1893-04-22
aeNlus As AEFEorEp eY eex.

GENIUS AS AFFECTED BY SEX.
= Mra Explains why Men are Posts and
Women Are Not.
The male bird sings the female docs
not This is the broad general rule;
the few exceptions serve but TO accen.
luate the fcebleness and uninsPired
/ timbre of the female voice. Her. we
have broad hint or very interesting
subject.
Poetry IS song; It began before liter
nture was thought OF, when man was
as rude as the ull. It's exciting cause
was the passion Of love, and 1t was
heard in the near vicinity OF the nest,
the lair, the home. 1t was called forth
by a Joy as simple as breath and as
natural.
Anatomy shows that song does not
depend upon efficient vocal organs. The
female thrush has just rs perfect
syrinx as the male; not valve, not
muscle, intrinsic or extrinsic, not line
or contour is lacking in the whole
windpipe, from the glottis down TO the
lowest bronchial extremities Yet she
never sings real song. This suggests
that bird-poetry is the expression of a
masculine sensation.
"The history of mankind shows a
pretty close parellel between 1t and the
history Of birdlsind in this matter OF
song-gift The need of passionate
rhythmical expression has been much
stronger in the man than in the wo-
man, and mans voice, physically speak
ing, has always been the more power
full.
This need of expression is the in
spiration of genius; the stronger the
nature the more violent the need and
the greater the capacity of utterance
) No graver mistake can be made thar
TO refer poetry to a basis wholly spirit
ual, unless the other extreme of refer
; ring it wholly to a physical origin bC
accepted; but that poetry receives it,
T. initial impulse from the same source
a that engendcrs mere animal song can
;. not be doubted by the well-informet
Il physiologist
3 'It seems to me quite irrelevant K
Al speak of woman's lack of highes
e poetic creative power as proof OF he
Is inferiority to man. She is differen
from him, but not necessarily his in
ferior. Indeed, the art OF poetry is pos
II sessed only by exceptional men, som
N of whom have not been particular
,s noble or in any way personally CON
'f manding beyond the magic circle G
70 song. We have been made to see with
N in the last few years that women hav
n intellects quite as powerful as me
y have when it comes to directing larg
- affairs, overcoming great Difficult ties O
a. mastering abstract scientific studies
Of There are now living women rail
m road presidents, mine operators stoc
!, raisers and manufacturers, bankers
steamboat captains, and merchants a
80 successful as men in the same Offices
o. Indeed, the time is gone by for an
n, doubt as to woman's ability to succee
10 10 in all the practical affairs of life just a
m easily and just as fully as men.
ls But they are not men, any NOR
s. than men are women, and they neve
~; ID can be. This is equivalent to sayin
n that they are not poets of the larges
NJ sort and never can be. A golden e2
be ception, like Sappho, merely fixes tn
general rule. There may have been a
N n some time chance female mockinf
an bird which sang the dropping song;
w ever one did this she performed a ma
'ai culine act--a function of the ma
No nature.
IN. II have come to think that the higl
W. est reach of art will be the joil
es achievement of a man and woma
os working together as a completed i
ng dividual representative of the huma
ITS race. This is the only collaboratiC
ill worth trying, the collaboration of ma
'p' and wife under circumstances of pee
on liar happiness, as when genius wee
Ill genius, and when love, health, al
OF mutual confidence combine to url
TO 10 their joint lives into a single bloom
M art Like two birds that are maze
he building their nests in perfect cor
ed munity of labor, these happy marie
l0, poets might blend their natures in
or poem impressed with all that Il
Ge noblest and purest impulses and aspir
.ue Nn tions of humanity can mean. ."-Mauri
IH liz. Thompson, in n. Y. independent