How much significance, then, is added to the law uttered by Christ!—“Except ye become as little children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” Submission of will, loving trust, confiding faith—these belong to the child: how strange they appear to the executing, commanding, reasoning man! Are they so strange to the woman? We all know the answer. Woman is nearer to the point of departure of that development which outlives time and peoples heaven; and if man would find it, he must retrace his steps, regain something he lost in youth, and join to the powers and energies of his character the submission, love and faith which the new birth alone can give.
Thus the summing up of the metaphysical qualities of woman would be thus expressed: In the emotional world, man’s superior; in the moral world, his equal; in the laboring world, his inferior.
There are, however, vast differences in women in respect to the number of masculine traits they may have assumed before being determined into their own special development. Woman also, under the influence of necessity, in later years of life, may add more or less to those qualities in her which are fully developed in the man.
The relation of these facts to the principles stated as the two opposing laws of development is, it appears to me, to be explained thus: First, that woman’s most inherent peculiarities are not the result of the external circumstances with which she has been placed in contact, as the conflict theory would indicate. Such circumstances are said to be her involuntary subserviency to the physically more powerful man, and the effect of a compulsory mode of life in preventing her from attaining a position of equality in the activities of the world. Second, that they are the result of the different distributions of qualities as already indicated by the harmonic theory of development; that is, of the unequal possession of features which belong to different periods in the developmental succession of the highest. And here it might be further shown that this relation involves no disadvantage to either sex, but that the principle of compensation holds in moral organization and in social order, as elsewhere. There is then another beautiful harmony which will ever remain, let the development of each sex be extended as far as it may.
(c.) In Men. If we look at the male sex, we shall find various exceptional approximations to the female in mental constitution. Further, there can be little doubt that in the Indo-European race maturity in some respects appears earlier in tropical than in northern regions; and though subject to many exceptions, this is sufficiently general to be looked upon as a rule. Accordingly, we find in that race—at least in the warmer regions of Europe and America—a larger proportion of certain qualities which are more universal in women; as greater activity of the emotional nature when compared with the judgment; an impressibility of the nervous center, which, cæteris paribus, appreciates quickly the harmonies of sound, form and color; answers most quickly to the friendly greeting or the hostile menace; is more careless of consequences in the material expression of generosity or hatred, and more indifferent to truth under the influence of personal relations. The movements of the body and expressions of the countenance answer to the temperament. More of grace and elegance in the bearing mark the Greek, the Italian and the Creole, than the German, the Englishman or the Green Mountain man. More of vivacity and fire, for better or for worse, are displayed in the countenance.
Perhaps the more northern type left all that behind in its youth. The rugged, angular character which appreciates force better than harmony, the strong intellect which delights in forethought and calculation, the less impressibility, reaching stolidity in the uneducated, are its well-known traits. If in such a character generosity is less prompt, and there is but little chivalry, there is persistency and unwavering fidelity, not readily interrupted by the lightning of passion or the dark surmises of an active imagination.
All these peculiarities appear to result, first, from different degrees of quickness and depth in appreciating impressions from without; and, second, from differing degrees of attention to the intelligent judgment in consequent action. (I leave conscience out, as not belonging to the category of inherited qualities.)
The first is the basis of an emotional nature, and the predominance of the second is the usual indication of maturity. That the first is largely dependent on an impressible condition of the nervous system can be asserted by those who reduce their nervous centers to a sensitive condition by a rapid consumption of the nutritive materials necessary to the production of thought-force, and perhaps of brain-tissue itself, induced by close and prolonged mental labor. The condition of over-work, though but an imitation of immaturity, without its joy-giving nutrition, is nevertheless very instructive. The sensitiveness, both physically, emotionally and morally, is often remarkable, and a weakening of the understanding is often coincident with it.
It is necessary here to introduce a caution, that the meaning of the words high and low be not misunderstood. Great impressibility is an essential constituent of many of the highest forms of genius, and the combination of this quality with strong reflective intelligence, constitutes the most complete and efficient type of mind—therefore the highest in the common sense. It is not, however, the highest—or extremest—in an evolutional sense, it is not masculine, but hermaphrodite; in other words, its kinetic force exceeds its bathmic.[[49]] It is therefore certain that a partial diminution of bathmic vigor is an advantage to some kinds of intellect.
[49]. Bathmic force is analogous to the potential force of chemists, but is no doubt entirely different in its nature. It is converted into active energy or kinetic force only during the years of growth: it is in large amount in acceleration, in small amount in retardation.