Woman and Womanhood: A Search for PrinciplesSaleeby, C. W. (Caleb Williams)
Science
Woman and Womanhood: A Search for Principles
Saleeby, C. W. (Caleb Williams)
Eugenics; Women
Or again: "You like his talk; he strikes you as well versed in human
affairs; his knowledge of men and things impresses you; he has travelled
and can talk easily of what he has seen, and his voice is elegant and
can be heard in many tongues. But if he is going to say bitter things to
you, will the facility of his diction make them less bitter? If he is a
fool in his heart--and indeed the heart alone is the residence of folly
or wisdom--do you think that he will be a fool the less for venting his
folly in seven languages rather than in one? I quite understand your
admiring his cleverness; people who study the subject tell us, you know,
that a woman admires in a man things which are more characteristic of
men than of women, and that men's admiration of women is based upon the
same good principle. But in this bargain men have the best of it because
the most characteristic thing in woman is tenderness, and the most
characteristic thing in man is cleverness; and which do you think is the
better to live with? What is the virtue in cleverness coupled with, for
instance, a malicious tongue? What is the virtue in clever things if he
says them at your expense? The vital thing for you is, what are the uses
to which he puts his knowledge and capacities? That he knows the ways of
the world may impress you, but does he know them to admire them? And if
so, where does he stand compared with another, who is less versed and
versatile, but who, as your heart tells you, would hate the ways of the
world if he did know them?" ...
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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