“But, father, even if I do cultivate my mind, I shall probably never have an opportunity to do such a grand thing as help to build a Brooklyn bridge.”
“Probably not, but you can do a greater thing. 25 You can fit yourself to work on finer material than insensate stones. You can mould plastic minds. It is a far greater thing to wield spiritual forces than to manipulate inorganic matter.”
“But, all men do not merely make things. There are great statesmen, great soldiers, great writers.”
“True, but you would not want to be a soldier, I am sure. To kill is not a glorious profession. And to be a great statesman or writer is not merely a question of sex; it is a question of mind.”
“Do you think women have as much ability as men? Aren’t men really smarter than women?”
Mr. Wayne smiled at the girl’s eagerness. “I do not compare men and women to decide their relative ability,” he answered. “I believe their minds differ, but that does not imply that one is superior and the other inferior. Each is superior in its own place.”
“But men’s minds are so much stronger, father. Women never can be on the same level as men.”
“Bring me two needles of different sizes from your work basket. Now, tell me, which is superior to the other.”
“That depends on what you want to do with them,” replied Helen. “If you were going to sew on shoe buttons, you’d use this big one. If you wanted to hem a cambric handkerchief, you’d take this fine one.”
“Just so. Each is superior in its special place, and both are necessary. This is just as it seems 26 to me in regard to the ability of men and women. They are both minds; one strong, robust, enduring rough usage; the other fine, delicate, going where the first cannot go, and therefore supplementing it, and increasing the range of work that can be accomplished. The fine needle might complain that it could not do hard work, but do you think the complaint would be justifiable?”