Woman's love is fed by all the streams it meets. On the other hand,
With man, love is a geyser.
(4) Standing with reluctant feet
Where the brook and river meet.
—Longfellow, "Maidenhood"
* * *
The languishing lover has gone out of date; he has been replaced by the diverting one. And the change is significant of much: The early nineteenth-century maid pretended to ignorance; the early twentieth-century maid to omniscience.
The early nineteenth-century suitor protested; but
The early twentieth-century suitor has to contest. In the one case,
The woman tacitly acknowledges an inequality. In the other case,
The man has to openly to recognize his equal. Nevertheless,
The fundamental relationship between the sexes do not materially vary from century to century, much as conventional manners and customs may. For, after all,