The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1896-02-18


would be made disagreeable by pre-.
of mind, though she would
be doubly agreeable by that addition.
Many men who regard an intellectu-
al woman as interesting, as an onter-
tanning companion, as delightful per.
son to talk with or to meet occasional
ly, imagine her to be masculine, "a sort
Of good fellow, but in no sense lovable.
Who, they ask, would think of marrying
such woman? What a dreadful mis-
take it would bel She would be so Occu-
pied in reading an important work or
in rejecting ON some umCltous subject
recently suggested that she would for
get to look after breakfast or to give
orders for dinner. Her husband would
be constantly worried. He would be dis
appointed in what he had a right to OK
pect. Her children would ever be neg
lected and her entire household disor.
dered A man who wuuld take her for
wife might look for perpetual discord
and would have only himself to blame,
for he might have known his doom be-
forehand. Even if she were lovable, fas
1inating, no man should allow himself
to become enamored Of her. He should
avoid her as sorceress who would
weave spell about him that he could
not break and that would eventually
undo him. But. happily, nature has
preserved him from such calamity by
not making the woman Of marked men
tally dangerous to the heart. She is too
intent ON the abstract relations Of
things, on the problems of the universe,
to concern herself with wooings and
weddings.
Such are the current opinions of the
mass of men concerning any woman who
does her own thinking, whose under
standing is literary storehouse and a
depository of valuable facts. She is as
much misrepresented i'll her ability to
please, to enkindle passion, TO awaken
sympathy, as she is i'll personal appear
ance. She is no more devoid Of charm
fitness than she is rawboned and shrill
voiced, as all acquainted with her ma.
ture and influence are well aware. She
is not necessarily interesting because
she is intellectual, any more than she ii
intellectual because interesting To be
interesting she needs something beside,
;,tolloo.-alsl-- A. .--.-------- -
gree Of genuine womanliness, for the alb
Sence of which nothing can compensate
Given that, with fine mind added
she will draw almost any man capable
Of approaching her under propitious cir.
cumstances and frequently Il man who
would seem, from plentiful lack of
culture, incapable of appreciation.
Men are so continually falling in love
with women opulent of body and poor
of brain that it is wholly just to infer
that brain has no effect in such falls.
But these are mere passions mostly, al
ensnaring of the senses, tumult in the
blood, which is soon allayed by marriage
and very little left to take its place.
Losing the heart is phrase in common
use, but the heart is not so much involv-
ed that it is not ready to lose itself again
and again as ardors cool and transports
abate without enduring any serious
harm. Men are not prone to such sud
den amatory tumbles where the woman
has mental distinction that outbalances
her physique. They move more slowly,
but more surely. Their spark does not
flash into blaze, but the fame that ii
causes is steady and lasts. Mind and
culture hold men, keep them loyal and
true, feed the source of affection, pre-
serve its usually tranquil but not tran
sient joys.
These are not always tranquil, how
ever. Mind not infrequently inspires in
tense, instantaneous passion, but it
burns long, brightly, warmly, seldom
Pickering and finally going out, like the
passion born wholly Of the senses The
senses are conspicuous and inseparable
from any love not purely platonic, but
permanent love requires something
more--a liberal infusion of intellect to
prevent safety and WEAKNESS from
what at first was purely impure passion.
The kind of men biased against q
woman of mental power and attachments
believe, strangely enough, that she is,
as a rule, single; that very few of their
sex, as they say of themselves, have the
courage to wed her and would bitterly
repent of it if they should. They are
persuaded that she is an antimatri.
monialist on principle, and that she EN-
ploys whatever influence she may have
TO hinder persons from falling into the
connubial trap. They actually think,
many of them, that intellectual pursuits
are so entirely foreign to feminine in
stincts, aims and desires that they ex-
tinguish her affectionateness, eradicate
all sexual affinity, making her hard AZ
flint, as cold as ice.
They may be acquainted with num-
Der of wives who are so thoughtful and
learned as to be included in the category
they deprecate, but they never surmise
it. This shows how indisposed those
dreadfully erudite ere; lures are TO ad-
yertise their erudition or give any init
nation thereof to the undiscerning
many. Such women are to be found ev-
arywhere, but so modest and iy,icent
that they rarely allude to their lmowl-
edge except to those of scholarly tastes.
Only the professional writers, the au-
thors, are known, and they because
their names are necessarily fan liar to
he public, not because they talk of the
hop. How many of these are devoted
wives and mothers-none the less, but
3ven more, charming ON account of their
nkiness.
Intellect and culture make Il woman
'apable of becoming companion and
friend, and "A wife cannot be half wife
who is not those as we'll So far from
being unlovable, unattractive, Olsen
'hanting, she is exactly the opposite
when her brain is ripe and rich, when
her tongue is eloquent, her conversation
witty, What dullard the ordinary man
seems to be when he has not yet discov-
9red that the representative women of
Ibis generation, the gentlest ands the
-enderest, the most magnetic and the
most alluring, are they who, hundred
years ago, would have been called the
oluest of bluestockings
JUNIUs HENRI BROWNE.