new intellectual crusade for an idea. To this there are only two possible issues—on the one hand, complete failure; on the other hand, government by a metaphysical priesthood which will not even spare sex in its efforts to crush out all individual preeminence.
It may, perhaps, be thought that the Anthropologist who endeavors to assign woman her true position according to the laws of Nature is practically not less tyrannical toward her than the reformer who would have her modelled according to rules of his own. There are, however, two most important distinctions to be borne in mind: In the first place, the man of science knows from observation and experience that when structure is healthily developed, and function of every kind unimpeded, there results the nearest approach to happiness of which any individual is capable. But the Utopian of the a priori school gives no pledge for happiness except a general proposition, or a series of general propositions, well enough suited to the days of Plato, but wholly without value in the days of Darwin. In the second place, the propounders of new schemes make no provision for exceptional cases, but would reduce all mankind to one dead level, while variation is admitted, and the efforts of remarkable individuals are watched with interest by the observers of Nature. The latter, conscious that they are not yet masters of the universe, would allow fair play to all alike, in the hope of learning something new; the former, tacitly assuming that the apex of knowledge is reached, would issue edicts, from their metaphysical Olympus, for the reconstruction of humanity.
There cannot be a doubt that human beings exist who, though not of the male sex, have more masculine intellects than many men, and others whose muscular development and power of enduring fatigue are far superior to those of many a conscript. Had conquerors possessed Utopian minds, they would long ago have declared the fitness of women for military service, for which they are adapted just as well as for political life. But it is only in such a work as the "Republic of Plato" that we find a plea for the application of the same physical training to both sexes. In that treatise[1] an objector is made to suggest that the spectators would begin to laugh if men and women were seen struggling together in the same arena. The philosopher, whose ideal republic would have possessed an hermaphroditic army, could not see the point of the joke, and expressed a profound contempt for the sneers of the unphilosophic. It is, however, worthy of remark that, although he would gladly have seen women converted into wrestlers, boxers, and soldiers, and even thought of giving them a share in the government of the state, he declared them to be in all things weaker than man. The idea of absolute equality is of quite modern growth, and has probably been suggested by the undeniable success of the female intellect in many fields of literature.
To write ingenious novels, and even successful dramas, to paint
- ↑ Book v., cc. iii. to vi.; see, also, the "Laws," book vi., c. xxiii.
