The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-11-23
W0MAN'S SIXTH SENSE.
Her Remarkable Powers Of lntu ition
Compared With Mans Powers
of Reasoning.
Female Mind Does not Run the
Risk Of Using Ratioci-
nation.
Hat Strikes Each PeIat with Native Force
Of Aiad-Puxxlea Lsgio Biundsrs
Far Heh.nd.

Far Hshlad.
The rapidity with which woman Is push.
ing to the front in the various lines Of SO.
rious endeavor is, to the average mascu-
limo mind, marvellous and incomprehensi-
BILE. That she should attain anything
more than a moderate success in business
pursuits is altogether incompatible with
our conception Of the female capacity. We
of the opposite sex have been won't to look
upon om as a physical and intellectual
weakling, as n being incapable Of more
than a s~emi-interest In the stcrner ques-
lions of life and as n who, wen in the
milder and seemingly more appropriate
spheres OF art, is usually satisfied with
the mercst dilettanteism. We have been
told time au1 again, and told by those
who ought to know. that tho sex is prac-
tically devoid Of the reasoning faculty and
consequently is adapted only to those gen.
tier offices which make demand not so
much upon the intellect as upon the natu-
ral instincts.
How comes it then that woman, lacking
this great essential, threatens to push man
to the wall in almost all the occupations,
W tlpIIlTS 44lll4 VI hAtsS AS uUo oA
sidered his prerogaives and to laugh in
derision at his boasted superiority. Can
1t be that ratiocination is not such a very
necessary factor in business SUCCESS after
all, en- Is 1t that woman possesses some
subtle and superior 81 bstitufe7 Undoubt-
cdly the latter. For our slow going reason
she has her quick going intuition, a facul-
ty almost exclusively her own, and in
comparison with which mans poor proc
ess is but as the creeping messenger boy to
the lightning telegraph.
Being frequsntiy brought into contact
with ome in various business callings
requiring quick and decisive action, I am
often absolutely asto,lnded at the won
derful operations of this feminine endow-
ment. Where her masculine coworkers
with united and perspiring brows proceed
labciously to weigh and measure pros
and cons l nave seen her decide instantly
and calmly the proper course to pursue,
and raraly, so far as my observations have
gon have her munitions been at fault.
She gems to
Strike each point with native force Of mind,
While puzzled logic blunders far behind.
The most obvious characteristics Of the
feminine intellect, says Roscoe, are deli
cacy Of perceptive power and rapidfty Of
movement. He asserts that woman sees
a thousand things which escape a man,
and that she is quicker sighted even phys
ically; moreover, that women differ from
men in having far more varied, subtle
and numerous inlets to knowledge, upon
which they rely, without trying to remem-
Der and reason from previous experience,
as a man does. The female intellect "walks
directly and unconsciously by more deli
cate insight and a more refined and more
trusted intuition to an end to which mems
minds grope carefully and p~loddingly
along" And Hazlitt afirms that women
have more Of what is called good sense
than ~men-being less implicated in theo-
ries and Judging of objects more from
their immediate and involuntary impress
sion Oh the mind, and therefore, he con-
tends, judging more truly and naturally.
"They cannot reason wrong, for they do
not reason at all."
A French proverb bids us take the first
advice of a woman and not the second.
This proverb Archbishop Trench deemed
one Of great wisdom. Said he, the second
counsels, against which we are warned,
would spring from her reasoning, and in
this she is much inferior to man, but in
intuitions, Gin moral intuitions, above all,
women srrpass us far, " having what Mon
taigne ascribes to her "l'esprit prime-sau-
tier" the leopard's spring, which takes
it's prey, If it be to take it at all, at the
first bound.
1t may be said in a general way that in
vocations demanding quickness and de-
cisiveness of thought and action woman,
with her improved opportunities, must
soon overcome the prejudice against her
and stand on an equality with if not out
rival her male competitor, while in large
enterprises, demanding deep and earnest
thought and pure ratiocination, she must
inevitably fall short of the required capac-
ity.
Woman is adapted to business life only
in so far as her intuitive faculty may be
nodded to business requirements. Nor
does this fact set a mean limit to her aspi-
One Of the most valuable quail
one can possess in the worka-
day world Is the ability to read instantly
the character of those with whom we are
brought into contact, and this is one of
the finest operations of the feminine en-
dowment.
HaZlitS insists on the pr~e-eminence Of
women in tact and insight into character
on their being quicker than men to find
out a pednnt, Il pretender, q blockhead.
The explanation he offers is that they
trust more to first impressions and natural
indications of things without troubling
themselves with q learned theory Of them:
whereas men, affecting greater gravity
and thinking that they are bound to iusti-
fy their opinions, IRE afraid to form any
judgment at all without the formality of
proofs and definitions. He calls women
natural physiognomists and men phrenol-
ogists-the former judging by sensations,
tho latter by rules. Rousseau again de-
clares presence Of mind, penetration, sub
tlety Of insight, to be distinctively la sci
ence des femmes.
One of the greatest difficulties woman
has had to struggle against in business
life is what Hartley Coleridge terms mans
& presumptuous reliance on ratiocinative
understanding" his stupid unbelief in the
value of her int%uitions.
81 shall take your ADVICE" said Cole
ridge to a lady upon whose Judgment,
from constant experience of it's rectitude,
he could rely almost as on an oracle. 81
shall act upon your opinion, for ! am sure
you are In the right. But as to your fors
and becauses kindly leave them to me 10
find out."-Cor. Boston Transcript.