We all laughed at the doctor’s want of courage, and Zenith answered:
“I beg your pardon; I am greatly at fault if I have any such expression in my face. My confidence, if I have any, is not in any supposed ability I may have in conversation, but in our experience here on Mars. Your history matches ours so well up to your generation that I cannot but think the likeness will continue; and if it does, then woman, in your near future, will prove the truth of my statement. But before I proceed to tell you what she has done in this world, let me ask you if your women have shown any mental peculiarity which distinguishes them from men.”
“Yes,” answered the doctor, “their intuitive perceptions appear to be more developed than those of men, probably because they use them more. A man may reach a certain conclusion by a course of reasoning, while a woman will often arrive at the same point much quicker by intuition. That is, a man will tell you why he knows a thing, when a woman simply knows it because she knows it.”
“Is that faculty akin to anything else with which you are acquainted?”
“Yes, we call it instinct in animals.”
“Is not the possession by woman of that quality a silent but powerful suggestion to you of the fact that she was treated like an animal in the dark days of her inthrallment?”
“I had not thought of it,” returned the doctor, “but it certainly may be looked upon as a sad commentary on that rude age.”
“Do you consider this instinct an advantage to woman?” asked Zenith.
“Certainly; it is a great help to her, often serving with much success in place of other faculties.”
“Would it be a valuable quality to add to man’s mental equipment?”