SECT. X.
LXIV. And perhaps father Malebranche adopts the same mode of reasoning; for, although he was much more benign towards the women, and in his art of investigating truth acknowledges, that in the faculty of discerning sensible things, they are known to have the advantage of the men; still he insists, they are much inferior to them in the comprehension of abstract ideas; and assigns as the reason of it, the softness of their brains. It is very well known, that people search for these physical causes, and after some experience, when they are, or fancy they are sure of their effects, apply them in their own manner, to suit their own doctrines. This being the case, the consequence which results from hence is, that the author himself falls into the same intellectual disease, of which he had intended to cure all mankind. This error, is produced by common pre-occupations, and principles ill considered and digested. He without doubt made this judgment, either to avoid being led away by the common opinion, or from having observed, that women of ability, or those who are reputed such, reason with more facility, and talk more pertinently than the men, on such subjects as appertain to sensible things, and with no less precision than them (if in such cases they do not observe a total silence) on abstracted matters; but this proceeds, not from an inequality of talents, but from a difference of application and practice. Women employ themselves, and think much more than the men, about dainty eatables, setting out a table, ornaments of dress, and other things of this kind; from whence it happens, that they discourse and talk of them more pertinently, and with greater facility than those of the other sex. On the contrary, it is very rare, that any woman attends to questions of theory, or bestows the least thought on the subject of abstract ideas, and therefore it is no wonder they seem dull, when the conversation turns on such matters. If you observe them, you will find, that women who are informed, and are of a gay cast, and who sometimes take pleasure in discoursing on the delicacies of platonic love, whenever it happens that they argue with the men on this point, they greatly out-do even the most discreet ones, who have not applied themselves to explore these bagatels of fancy: this in a great measure confirms the remarks we have made above.
LXV. In general, any person whatever, be his capacity ever so great, will appear more rude than a man of little penetration, if he talks with him of such matters as the other has had experience in and he has never applied himself to understand. A labourer in husbandry, whom God has endowed with a most penetrating genius, which is no uncommon case, if it happens that his attention has never been fixed on any other thing but his work, would appear greatly inferior to the most heavy politician, if he should ever chance to converse with him about reasons of state; and the most wise politician, if he is merely a politician, who should set himself to talk about the disposition of troops, and the fighting of battles, would utter a thousand absurdities; insomuch, that if a man skilled in military affairs was to hear him, he would be apt to conclude he was mad, as Hannibal thought the great Asiatic orator was, who, in the presence of king Antiochus and him, undertook to argue about the art and conduct of war.
LXVI. It happens exactly the same in the business we are now treating of. A woman of excellent understanding, whose thoughts are constantly occupied on domestic management and the care of her house, without scarce ever hearing matters of a superior nature talked of, or, if it does happen that she hears any such thing, she rarely pays much attention to it: her husband, though much inferior to her in talents, converses frequently abroad with able men of various professions, by communicating with whom, he acquires variety of knowledge, or he enters into public business, and receives important information. Instructed in this manner, if it happens at any time that in the company of his wife, these matters are talked of, she, who by the means and in the way we have just mentioned, can gain but little aid or assistance, if she happens to speak just what occurs to her on the subject, from the want of instruction, must appear a little defective in point of knowledge, let her be ever so acute and penetrating. Her husband, and the others who hear her, conclude from thence, that she is a fool; and he in particular, plumes himself on his superior talents and abilities.
LXVII. As it fared with this woman, so it fares with an infinity of others, who, though they may have much more sense than the men they happen to be in company with, are condemned by them as unfit to reason on any kind of subject: but the truth is, that their not being able to reason at all, or their reasoning ill on such matters, does not proceed from a want of talents, but from a want of being properly informed; and without this assistance, a person, endued with even an angelic understanding, could not discourse pertinently on any subject whatever. The men at the same time, although inferior to them in understanding, shine and triumph over them with an air of importance, because they happen to be better provided with information.
LXVIII. Over and above this advantage of being better informed, the men have another, which is of great moment, to wit, that they are much accustomed to meditate, discourse, and reason upon such matters, it being in a manner their daily practice; while the women hardly ever bestow a thought on them: on which account, whenever these things are started in conversation, the men are prepared to talk upon them, and the women are taken by surprize.
LXIX. Finally, men, by their reciprocal communication with each other upon such subjects, gain mutual instruction, each individual, receiving lights and information from the observations and experience of those we converse with; and therefore, when they argue upon these matters, they not only make use of their own understandings and improvements, but they likewise avail themselves of what they have acquired from their neighbours; so that many times, what is expressed and explained by the mouth of one man, is not the produce of one understanding only, but of many. The women, who in their ordinary conversations, don’t discourse on these sublime questions, but rather of their domestic amusements and employments, furnish to each other no reciprocal lights or assistance, with respect to these great points; in consequence of which, whenever they happen to be present when such subjects are agitated, you should add to their talking unprepared, the disadvantage, of each of them being confined to the use of no more than their own proper lights and ideas.
LXX. These advantages, by means of which, a man of very short penetration, may say much more, and much more to the purpose, upon noble subjects, than a woman of great perspicuity, are of such moment, that one who has not attended to the above reflections, if he should happen to be present at a conversation of this sort, between a very keen woman and a very heavy man, might be apt to conclude, that he was a discreet person, and she a fool.
LXXI. In fact, the want of these reflections, has engendered in many men, and some of them in other respects wise and prudent ones, this great contempt for the understanding of women; but what is most laughable and ridiculous, they have exclaimed so much and so loudly against them, and have asserted with such confidence the poverty and scantiness of their understandings, that many, if not the bulk of the world, have been idle enough to believe them.