But do they differ as you say? You know the answer of _science_ and _facts_. We will not return to it. All your distinctions of beauty and strength are only imaginary classifications. We all know that of eighteen millions of Frenchmen, at the present time, we have a few men of genius, absorbed in specialties, a few more men of talent, perhaps not four philosophers, mediocrities in abundance, and an immense host of cyphers. It is mockery, therefore, to establish the right of prepotency of a sex from qualities which, on the one hand, do not exist in each of its members, and, on the other, are often found in the highest degree in the sex which it is claimed to reduce to subjection. Besides, did your sex possess the qualities which you ascribe to it, to the exclusion of mine; since, by your admission, there would be neither civilization, nor science, nor art, nor justice, without the qualities you term peculiar to woman; and since, without these qualities, man would be only a brute and an anthropophagus, it thence follows that woman is _at least_ the equivalent of man, if not his superior. Let us now notice a few of your contradictions. 1st _Thesis_. Woman is a sort of mean term between man and the rest of the animal kingdom. _Antithesis._ No; woman is the idealisation of man, in that which is purest and most sublime in him. 2d _Thesis_. Woman is an inert creature, devoid of understanding, that has no reason for existing. _Antithesis._ No; woman is the animating principle of man; without her, he could not fulfil his destiny; she is the motive power of all justice, all science, all industry, all civilization, all virtue. 3d _Thesis_. Woman does not know how to express an opinion in set terms, or to assign reasons for it; she has only disconnected ideas, erroneous reasonings; she mistakes chimeras for realities, composes nothing but medleys, monsters. _Antithesis._ No; the intellect of woman is finer than that of man; she has a wiser, more prudent, more reserved mind; she is the foil of masculine ideas. She is Minerva shaming Ulysses for his paradoxes and profligacies; she is the seat of wisdom. 4th _Thesis_. Without the magnetic influence of man, woman would not emerge from the bestial state. _Antithesis._ Without the magnetic influence of woman, man would be but a ferocious beast. 5th _Thesis_. The woman who philosophises and writes, destroys her progeny; she had better go iron her collars; she is good for nothing but to be concubine or courtesan. _Antithesis._ Woman should participate in the philosophy and speculations of man, and popularize them by her writings. 6th _Thesis_. The conversation of woman exhausts, enervates; he who wishes to preserve intact the force of his mind and body, will flee her. _Antithesis._ The conversation of woman refreshes the most eminent men. 7th _Thesis_. Woman has an infirm conscience; she is immoral, anti-judicial; she is worth nothing as to moral responsibility until forty-five years of age.