Gloucester County Democrat., 1898-04-07

sari1y in mind no less than body. In
what is known as fair mindedness they
are more distinctive perhaps than in
any other trait of the higher order. 1t
is not assumed, Of course, that men as a
sex are fair minded and that women as
a sex are not. Nobody believes or ever
has believed that. Very few men, COM
pared with the multitude, are fair
minded; the fair minded man is an ex-
ception, it often seems. Can anything
more severe be said of women? It is not
my purpose to speak severely of women
when intimating that they are very sell
dom addicted to impartiality, breadth
of view, fair mindedness. Such quality
does not, it would appear, naturally be-
long to them. It is SO opposed to great
deal in their composition that it does
not flourish; it usually languishes, it
lacks sustenanoe, it perishes, even if
planted, before it can take root.
Thus man continually afirms, and
many woman comedies the point as a
rule, but maintains that she has i'm
partiality. fair mindedness often, posi-
tive magnanimity in isolated cases.
This last claim he stubbornly denies.
He is wont to declare that she is inca
pable of magnanimity under any and all
circumstances; that it is wholly incom-
patible with her constitution, her tenn
permanent, her destiny. He is apt to say
cynically that parvanimity is her char
aeteristic; that any one who looks to
her for impartiality, for fair minded
ness, is pretty certain to be disappoint-
ed. She cannot, he continues, rise above
herself, encroach suddenly, all at once,
upon the masculine prerogative, be two
separate, distinct beings in one. The
laws of nature must be preserved. The
new, the advanced, woman-the woman
of today--is indignant at this sort Of
talk, will not listen to it, pronounces it
the result of ignorance, prejudice, pure
misogyny She is prone to be at one ex-
treme, the sarcastic, railing man at the
other. The truth probably lies between
the two.
What intelligent, unbiased, reason
ing, highly educated men and women
substantially agree upon is likely to be
veraeious of the sexes and must carry
weight. What do they say, the moder-
ate and the clear of vision? They are
the picked ones, the individuals, the
visibly discriminating. They grant wo-
man no less thar man that her life, her
disposition, her training, her constant
experience, tends not to impartiality, to
fair mindedness, which she is disinclined
to value properly or appreciate fully.
Fair mindedness is not, in her view,
shining attribute, does not primarily
appeal to her, is not commonly ranked
among the feminine virtues; therefore
not to be cultivated by her. Woman is
spontaneously attached to what stirs,
enkindles her vanity, as man is sup
posed to be what evokes his pride. Her
most estimable qualities are frequently
the defects, as they are regarded, of her
virtues, or it may be the virtues of her
defects. She is creature of emotion, of
sentiment, of affection. If she were al
ways impartial, strictly fair minded.
she would have much less of those feel
ings, would DO much reduced in her
power as a woman, would be less at
tractive, less lovable. She does not feel
that she can lose any thing of her attrao-
tion, of her lovableness without seri
ously impGiring the beauty and benigni-
ty of her sex, and rather than that she
would prefer to perish, to be totally OBJ
liberated. Every woman is, to her own
ideal, goddess and in such eontempla-
tion, however exaggerated, she reaches
her highest happiness.
Men who ever speak scofingly of
woman's lack of impartiality, of her
want of fair mindedness would not ex-
change her coquettishness, her charming
waywardness, her graceful duplicity, to
have her an Aristides in petticoats.
They seem to think they reimburse
themselves for the follies they commit
and the worship they pay her in private
for their harsh criticism of her in pub
lie. They do not care what her faults
may be if she will only be agreeable to
them. Their prodigious egotism will for
give everything to her vanity so long as
it spares their own. They relish prais-
ing her for her nobleness, her independ-
enoe, her elevated spirit, but is it not
chiefly because they love to hear them
selves talk? They emphasize their ad-
miration of her, but they would much
rather love her, and while they love her
they think little of admiration. There
are no women in "Plutarch's s Lives. I"
They read that once and an erotic ro-
nance hundred times. The heroines
they delight in have figured, for awhile
II l. \
hardly be heroines anywhere else.
A woman who is tine incarnation Of
magnanimity and whom most men pro-
nounce impossible they would not as a
rule fancy at all They would be re-
PEELED by her in the concrete. If she
should appear to them in the abstract
only, they would be sure that she had
an aquiline nose, craggy chin, slight
mustache and a bass voice. Often aa
men censure woman Tor want or rair
mindedness they seldom laud her for its
possession. They would be rather drawn
to her pretty mouth than to any nun
Der of impartialities it might utter. A
pretty mouth is commonly eloquent to
their ears, though it may convey only
PAoOAehdCo. Lboy may rave s4DOub lutol-
lect and culture, but faces and forms
win them much more. The greatest pro-
fessed adorer of mentality in the other
sex will often be found in ardent pur-
suit of we'll turned ankle and an undu-
lating gait.
Freely as large class of men inveigh
against the inferiority Of women, it
seems mostly habit, mere exercise of
the tongue. The sexes are on the whole
admirably adapted to one another, could
scarcely be amended to advantage. The
wisest, the most learned men frequently
appear to harmonize completely with
characterless. frivolous women. An en-
thusiastio admirer of fair mindedness
might readily become riveted and often
does to her who had no conception Of
the meaning of the word.
JUaIUs HENRI BROWNE.