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    196 FJROM PARIS.

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    ._———— —^^»— ^ A Phil 17, 1860. To The C...

    " The _English , do not ask _physiology to reveal the secrets of the feminine genius ; they put feminine capacities to actual proof , in

    giving work-tools into the hand of woman . They begin on the mounting lowest level 1 up , with continuall little y economical into the ethereal improvements regions , of while philosop we h are y .

    Even a superficial examination of the practical results obtained by each , method ,, will demonstrate , I fear , that our ' s is not the best ;

    that is to say , the abstract thought represented by Prance has advanced more slowly in the good path of realising improvement ,

    than the material interests of each and all as they are w ell understood in England . French waiters in searching for the causes of

    disorder and decay existing in the heart of our nation , have found a thorough discordance between the principles of education , the

    tendencies , and the interests of the two sexes ; and so great an inferiority on the part of wonien as is alone enough to retard common

    social progress . " From this discovery have sprung , on the one side , optimist

    theories explaining the present state of tilings by natural causes and immutable law s ; on the other , reforming theories embracing

    education , manners , and even legislation : theories made under the conviction tliat they never would be realised , and for this sole reason

    marked by a character chimerical in its general bearing , and puerile in detail .

    " Lastly , the French people are still disputing , with modern methods it is true , the old theological question as to the nature

    of the soul of woman , while the English treat of what I shall venture to call the question of bread and butter . Should I be

    accused of being prosaic I should say that more sensible conclusions are to be got out of the vulgarities of the second question

    than out of the subtilties of the first . When the imperative necessity of eating and drinking is in question , all the world unites

    in recognising the principle that woman , as well as man , ought to be able to gain her daily bread by industry of a kind

    suitable to her feminine faculties . But the moment people begin to talk of the organ of mental digestion , the brain , all unanimity

    ceases , and the most contradictory hypotheses are daily hazarded without the slightest _residt . Whether it be true that the feminine

    brain , as some people have declared , cannot elaborate ideas , and consequently only receives to reject them instantly as injurious

    bodies foreign to its substance , (!) or whether the said brain is really attaining development and harmony as the world advancesit is

    , equally certain that its nature is ruled by its own interior law . Neither on tke one nor the other hypothesis can it be much aifected

    by human ordinances , custom , or opinion . The law pounces on the hungry wretch who steals a miserable subsistence ; can it pounce

    upon the famished mind which thieves those ideas it feels to be necessary to its growth ?

    " So far , therefore , as public morals- and manners are concerned ,

    196 Fjrom Paris.

    196 _FJROM PARIS .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1860, page 196, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051860/page/52/