[1] "Notes on England." CHAPTER IV. SPECIFIC SYMPTOMS OF THE MALADY IN WOMEN. "Their hypocrisy is a perpetual marvel to me, and a constant exercise of cleverness of the finest sort." THACKERAY, "Mr. Brown's Letters to a Young Man." "It would take a large volume to contain the authentic accounts of deception practised by women." DR. E. J. TILT, "The Change of Life." Women are particularly susceptible to the disease of Respectability. Our sisters esteem rank and birth; they bow down to all kinds of idols with a veneration seldom equalled in men. Form, ceremonies, modes of dress, points of etiquette, and social observances mean more to them than to us; and it is difficult to prove to them the hollowness and inutility of mere seems, because externals satisfy their sense of decorum and give them pleasure. The average _bourgeois_ woman reads the court news and aristocratic tittle-tattle with avidity mingled with envy. Baubles, insignia, uniforms, and the pomps of officialdom attract and dazzle her, and she would rather know a stupid peer than a sage, unpretentious philosopher, man of science, or poet. Notice the large proportion of women in the crowds that gather outside a West End mansion, or at the door of a church, on the occasions of a ball or a fashionable wedding. Many women will travel long distances, and endure severe fatigue and discomfort to gain a transitory glimpse at titled personages. Lacking the power of analysis, and being deficient in imagination, they admire the popular and ostentatious, and contemn the persons and the things of true worth. Besides this, women's sense of humour is less keen than that of men; they fail to see the droll side of customs and fetishes, and they get angry with those who jest and chuckle at grotesque ceremonies and functions. It matters not to the middle-class woman how good or wise a man or woman may be if they do not conform to preposterous codes and usages.