Owing to their extreme sensibility and their incapacity for accurate inquiry and firm decision, they may easily become fanatics.
The love of women, strong as it is, is very changeable; but their hatred is almost incurable, and is only to be overcome by persistent and artful flattery. Men usually see things as a whole, whereas women take more interest in details.
Women have less physical courage than men. Man hears the bursting thunders, views the destructive bolt with serene aspect, and stands erect amid the fearful majesty of the torrent. But woman trembles at the lightning and thunder, and seeks refuge in the arms of man.
Woman is formed for pity and religion; and a woman without religion is monstrous; and a woman who is a freethinker is more disgusting than a woman with a beard.
Woman is not a foundation on which to build. She is the gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble—the materials for building on the male foundation. She is the leaven, or, more expressly, she is oil to the vinegar of man. Man singly is but half a man, only half human—a king without a kingdom. Woman must rest upon the man, and man can be what he ought to be only in conjunction with the woman.
Some of the principal physiognomical contrasts may be summarised here.
Man is the most firm; woman the most flexible.
Man is the straightest; woman the most bending.
Man stands steadfast; woman gently retreats.