The Essays of "George Eliot": CompleteEliot, George
History
The Essays of "George Eliot": Complete
Eliot, George
Literature -- History and criticism
What were the causes of this earlier development and more abundant
manifestation of womanly intellect in France? The primary one, perhaps,
lies in the physiological characteristics of the Gallic race—the small
brain and vivacious temperament which permit the fragile system of woman
to sustain the superlative activity requisite for intellectual
creativeness; while, on the other hand, the larger brain and slower
temperament of the English and Germans are, in the womanly organization,
generally dreamy and passive. The type of humanity in the latter may be
grander, but it requires a larger sum of conditions to produce a perfect
specimen. Throughout the animal world, the higher the organization, the
more frequent is the departure from the normal form; we do not often see
imperfectly developed or ill-made insects, but we rarely see a perfectly
developed, well-made man. And thus the _physique_ of a woman may suffice
as the substratum for a superior Gallic mind, but is too thin a soil for
a superior Teutonic one. Our theory is borne out by the fact that among
our own country-women those who distinguish themselves by literary
production more frequently approach the Gallic than the Teutonic type;
they are intense and rapid rather than comprehensive. The woman of large
capacity can seldom rise beyond the absorption of ideas; her physical
conditions refuse to support the energy required for spontaneous
activity; the voltaic-pile is not strong enough to produce
crystallizations; phantasms of great ideas float through her mind, but
she has not the spell which will arrest them, and give them fixity.
This, more than unfavorable external circumstances, is, we think, the
reason why woman has not yet contributed any new form to art, any
discovery in science, any deep-searching inquiry in philosophy. The
necessary physiological conditions are not present in her. That under
more favorable circumstances in the future, these conditions may prove
compatible with the feminine organization, it would be rash to deny. For
the present, we are only concerned with our theory so far as it presents
a physiological basis for the intellectual effectiveness of French women.
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