The San Francisco call., 1904-07-03


written in q little book oddly
alled --The Alternate Sex by
e Charles Godfrey Leland, who, after
writing a. hundred books and turn
ing in much Of other excellent
-copv. giving US the finest translation
OF Eeine in the language. doing much
for decorative art. enriching our store
Of legendary lore, and. adding TO other
poetry. went IL all one better by max
iug his own life a poem Of blameless
beauty. lie left US last year when he
had lived out nine summers more than
his allowance Of three score and ten;
and no doubt went away where it is
fairer even than that Fairy Land Of
Legend and POesie which in life he
ioyed so well.
The last words from such man,
written when he was close to death,
when the call was almost come TO
pass beyond the veil which makes the
mystery Of human life. are given d po-
tency by our imagination Of that mys-
tic passage and our presage that TO
those who are prepared to die and will
ing to wait for the welcome of the
well done, good and faithful servant"
the nearness OF the other world brings
wisdom closer. even though while
measure6ly divinely true, 1t must to
earthly ear be uncertain and obscure
clothed with the seeming which stands
10 US as the symbol of the surety be-
yond our grasp. So Of the theory
maintained in this posthumous work
we may well wonder if it is one of
those things which we can without
crank credulity believe. though in Ten
nysonian phrase we express ii as
among the truths which never can be
proved"
In his hypothesis of human mental
fty the author means by alternate
sex the female intellect in man and
the masculine mind in woman. An
idea which. in a certain limited meas
ure is long known and generally acz
knowledged, but the way in which Le-
land works il out. and up. from prosy
biology and embryology and physiology
TO the poesy Of speculation where mat
ter has passed into the fineness we
name as soul, and the differentiated
cOmplementing functions Of sex, as
science knows them in physiology, evo-
lutte into the still differing and mutual
" complementing sex-life and co-work-
ing on the plane of mind and spirit
this is unique because OF the extreme
10 which he carries it.
He assumes that the elusive mystery
which We have long vaguely known
and studied as the subliminal self, the
inner me, the hidden soul. uncon-
sciOus cerebratiOn, and the like, Is the
alternate sex within US. In the case Of
a man il is a woman mind and spirit
dwelling with him in the innermost
chambers OF his soul. complementing
his masculine mind, helping Linn, n
spring him, shy as a woodland nynph
who hides away in the wide-awake,
common sense working day, but comes
again in reverie, dream, vision. brown
study, abstraction when the wished-for
thought elUdes his own mental compul-
sion, and then she brings fairy-like
suggestions. whole books of old memo
ries with her spirit finger pointing TO
the very place, basketfuls of flower
fancies out Of which his organizing
lordship may build bouquets, the miss
ing links OF long sought inventions,
and, in fact. supplies all the gold dust
Of thought and deed which he coins to
currency, and becomes to him, not ex-
actly the genius and poetry, but the
muse which inspires them" This Le-
land idea must be new phase Of the
EwlgWiebliche, and, IL so, it is getting
the thing closer to the soul of US than
ever it was conceived of before
Now, as for the foundation of fact
Taich he lays for his speculative su-
perstructure, it is synoptically some
what thus: There is for every differing
physlcal form corresponding men
tality, as we note the womanly form
has the feminine mental characteris-
tics TO match, and so of the man. In
the variations more or less marked
from the distinct sexual types, as in
the woman who approaches man in her
physical sppearance-tenser muscles
and rougher build and sterner face and
harder voice-we find along with II
more Of the mind, the will, the tastes
and pursuits OF a man. So If the man
IS physically divergent from full manly
type toward the feminine, his mind will
correspond 70 II. But there are In all
normal men and women certain physi
cal rudiments which belong. in their
fun development, exclusively to the
other sex. These almost seem evidenc-
Ing distant epicene ancestry. So the
most manly men and the most woman
ly women have mingled in their mental
makeup much OF the characteristics
OF the opposite sex.
Next Leland makes us consider tba
now generally accepted working hv-
pothesis that we have another self
within us, sometimes called the sub-
liminal, or subconscIous self. In his
study Of this Inner Me he finds that IN
man it has all the peculiar character
istcs which prove it undoubtedly ferni-
nine in its nature; and from what
women have endeavored to explain IN
him he thinks their subliminal self Is
masculine.
Having investigated the result of his
conviction Of the truth of this theory
he proceeds TO point out the uses OF
II. and the further use of all of us
knowing il SO that we may consciously
enjoy and get good working res,,Its