it may be interpreted as a sign that the creative work of womanhood requires a less elaborate conscious equipment than that of men. The wisdom of conscious life is a structure slowly built by the individual, and needs a long apprenticeship; it is possible that the wisdom of unconscious life exists independently of the individual and waits only for admission. Incidentally, the fact that women have a reasonable expectation of living for twenty-five years after they have ceased to bear children is another proof--if proof be needed--that maternity is not merely a physical function: women go on living as long as their children need them. Lastly, although their creative work consists in the handling of individuals, and although they are finely aware of their own individual reactions, women rarely achieve a conscious individuality. They are so largely unconscious of themselves that they need emotional support for their personalities: it is their danger that they tend to live in a state of perpetual reference to other people; and when they express themselves as individuals, they do so spontaneously and not deliberately. Thus women as a body show a timidity which easily relapses into conservatism, and can only be overcome by urgent necessity. Conservatism becomes the spiritual death of women, as of men: but in women it springs from a timidity of intellect, from a weakness in conscious life; in men from a timidity of emotion, from a fear of the unconscious. This difference between men and women is illustrated in dress, for example. As the consciously organised life of men develops, their clothing expresses less of the emotion, the temperament, the spontaneity of unconscious life: it becomes a uniform, symbolic of their status as rational members of an organised society. They are sure of themselves and of their traditions, consequently fashion is a convention which sits as easily upon them as other conventions, and changes as slowly. It is a reasonable law, deliberately accepted for the sake of convenience and orderliness. Women, on the other hand, are not afraid of temperament and colour in dress; they express in their clothing the spontaneous, vivid, and irrational qualities of unconscious life. But because they are unsure of themselves as members of a public body, they need the assurance of “being in the fashion” to give them the necessary confidence for wearing even the most daring creations. Fashion among women is thus not a law accepted for convenience; it is a kind of emotional support, and it fluctuates as often and as widely as emotions. V