Dissertation on the Characteristic Differences between the Sexes, and on the Position and Influence of Woman in Society, No. III [pp. 672-691]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
Throughout the whole of this period it seems to have
been ungallant in the highest degree in an author not
to place woman decidedly above man in every particular. Even in intellectual power she was considered as
superior; and in perusing the voluminous proofs which
were so industriously, and sometimes so ingeniously
brought forward to prove it, we find ourselves as bewildered as the femme de chamnbre of Moliere, under the
learned remarks of the doctor upon the death of the
coachman. The poor woman at last exclaims, "Le
Medecin peut dire ce qu'il veut, mais le cocher est
mort." Whatever may have been written or said
in praise of the intellectual powers of woman during the very gallant period of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it is now a conceded point, that under
the actual constitution of society, and with the superior education of our sex, the intellectual endowments
and developments of man are generally found superior
to those of woman at the age of maturity. In fact, the
remark is susceptible of the greatest possible extension.
Among all the barbarous nations-among the half civilized, as well as among the refined and polished, we
find the intellectual powers of man every where and in
every age superior to those of woman.*
It is fable alone which tells us of whole nations of
Amazons. There is no well authenticated history of
any people where the women have taken the lead, and
governed the men by their superior intellectual endowments. Of course, as already remarked, individual exceptions prove nothing. We are here concerned with
masses of individuals; and from the foundation of the
world to the present time, we find that man has been
uniformly the commander in the field; he has formed
the material of the armies; he has led them to battle, won
the victories and achieved the conquest. He has directed at the council board; his eloquence has been most
powerfully felt in the senate and the popular assembly;
he has established and pulled down dynasties-built up
and overthrown empires, and achieved the mighty and
convulsive revolutions of the nations of the earth. All
the great, and learned, and lucrative occupations of life
are filled by him.'Tis he who studies the wondrous
mechanism of our frame, the nature and character of
our diseases and physical infirmities, and applies the
healing balm to the suffering individual stretched on
the couch of pain and sickness.'Tis he who made the
law-who studies its complicate details, its massive
literature and profound reasoning, and traces out the
chain of system and order, which like the delicate thread
of the labyrinth, runs through the whole range of its subtleties and sinuosities.'Tis he who has studied most
profoundly and elaborately the record of man's fall
and redemption.'Twas he who conducted the children of Israel, under the guidance of heaven, out of
Egypt, through the wilderness, Into the promised land
of Canaan.'Twas a man who first preached the new
gospel of Christ at Jerusalem, before the assembled nation, on the great day of Pentecost. It is man uposn
* I do not mean to assert here that woman has been found inferior to man in every department or modification of the intellect;
for in some kinds of intelligence she always has been, as we
shall soon see, man's superior;-but my meaning is, that in the
higher department of the intellectual powers, and in the general
range of the mind, man is superior to woman.
whom devolves the sacred func,ions of pre cmi1g and
spreading the gospel through the world. It is
"He that negotiates between God and man,
As God's ambassador, the grand concerns
Of judgment and of mercy."
It is he whose sublime and warning eloquence is heard
from the pulpit, arousing and awakening the apathy of
the listless, and stimulating the ardor of the pious.'Tis
man who carries forward, by his restless energies, all
the complicate business of that great commerce, which
binds together by the indissoluble ties of interest, all
the nations of the earth.'Tis he who creates the
stocks, charters companies of enterprise, and works by
his skill the mighty machinery of capital and trade.
And if we look to the rich and varied fields of literature and science, we shall find his footstep every where,
and see that his labors have reared the choicest fruit,
and produced the most stately and enduring trees. We
cannot then for a moment question his past and present
intellectual superiority in society.
But whence arises this actual superiority? Is it the
result of nature? or is it the result of education in that
enlarged sense which I have already explained in my
first number? Is the capacity of man naturally greater
than that of woman? or are they bornwith equal natural
endowments in this respect? and are the great differences which we observe in the full maturity of age, generated by the different circumstances under which
they act, and the different positions which they occupy
in society? I have already said that we have no data
by which this question can be positively and satisfactorily settled; that long before the child arrives at that
age at which we are able to detect the development of
the intellectual powers, his education both physical and
moral, has already advanced to such an extent as to
render all our deductions from mere experiment and
observation entirely fallacious. I am inclined however
to the belief, that there is no natural difference between
the intellectual powers of man and woman, and that
the differences observable between them in this respect
at mature age, are wholly the result of education,
physical and moral. At all events, I think I shall be
able to show that the difference in education is fully
sufficient to explain these differences, without looking
to any other causes.
First then, we find that the education which boys receive from teachers, is much more scientific and complete than that of the girls. The latter are sent to
school but a few years, and those during the earlier period of their lives, before the development of the reasoning powers. What they learn at school, therefore,
must be acquired by the exercise of memory alone, and
not by the employment of the far higher powers of
judgment, reason and reflection. These latter powers
are not generally developed before the age of seventeen
or eighteen, and in some cases still later. It is for this
reason we so often find the mature man failing to fulfil
the promise of his youth. In the early part of our
lives we learn principally by memory, and the boy
with the most ready memory therefore, is he who trcasures up the knowledge generally acquired in youth
with most facility. He, therefore, is apt to pass for
the brightest genius. But it may happen that this
bright youth may never develope to any extent the
reasoning powers; and if so, he will rarely go much
676