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.
home to be turned out, as it is termed, and the boy is
sent, when the parent's circumstances will admit it, to
college. The college education, therefore, of the young
men, may be considered as a clear superaddition to that
which young ladies receive. It is the college education
which is decidedly the most efficacious, when properly
conducted, in nurturing and developing the higher powers of the mind. The lecturers in well endowed institutions, are generally men of superior attainments and
intellectual powers. The division of mental labor, in
consequence of the number of professors, renders each
one more perfect in his department. The library
and apparatus are great advantages not possessed at
common schools. Well delivered lectures too, upon the
text of some good author, though they may not impart
a greater fund of positive information than might be
acquired by reading, yet they deeply interest the attention, and stimulate the exertions of the student;
they awaken a spirit of inquiry and research; they
teach him to examine and sift all he peruses with a
skeptical mind. They break the charm which is created by mere precedent and written authority, and furnish, if I may so express myself, the leading strings by
which we are gently led forth to more hardy and manly explorations in the field of science and literature.
All these are advantages exclusively enjoyed by our
young men, and hence, so far as the school education of
the sexes is concerned, there is no question that men
have decidedly the advantage over women.
This then must certainly be looked upon as one of
the most powerfully operating causes of the intellectual
differences between the sexes. But it is only a proximate cause, and the question immediately presents itself,
how has it happened that the young men have been so
much more universally and deeply educated in all ages
and countries?
And here we are led to a consideration of the effects
of that more enlarged and general education which
arises from physical and moral causes, independently
of mere teachers. I have already explained the causes
which assign to woman the domestic sphere, and all the
occupations pertaining to it, and to man the out of door
world with all the business, occupations, and cares
pertaining to its management. These separate, distinct, and widely different spheres in which the two
sexes move, as we have already observed, generate
characters distinctly marked and widely different. And
it is not to be wondered at that these characters, so
totally different, belonging to persons moving in different spheres, should require different kinds and degrees of intellectual powers. Woman is domestic in
her habits, she requires therefore a knowledge of all
those minutia-all those details which can best befit her
for her domestic occupations. She is more concerned
with the individual than with the multitude. She feels
more deeply interested in a mere family, than in a
whole nation. Hence she studies individual character,
individual disposition, and the motives by which individuals are governed, more than she does the general
traits of the multitude, the distinctive character of nations, or the great and general principles by which they
are governed. Woman is the delight and ornament of
the social circle. She therefore aims to acquire that
knowledge, and become possessed of those graces and
accomplishments which may cause her to be admired ~
by all while she is walking the golden round of her
pleasures and duties; her object is rather to please and
fascinate the imagination than to instruct the understanding. She is more humane, more tender, sympathetic, and moral than man, and, consequently, she is
more interested in the study of the feelings and the passions than in that of the understanding and the intellectual powers. In general she is more eager for the
perusal of all that addresses itself to the fancy and the
feelings, such as novels, romances, and poems, than for
the study of philosophy and science. In fine she is
much more literary than scientific.
.abstraction and Generalization.
We can now easily account for that great difference
which we observe in the intellectual powers of the sexes,
dependent on habits of abstraction and generalization.
Undoubtedly one of the greatest and most useful powers
of the human mind, is that by which we are enabled to
classify and generalize our ideas-that power which
enables us, from the observance of multitudes of facts
and details, to seize on those which possess a resemblance, to arrange them together under genera and
species, and thus to arrive at general principles or facts
applicable to thousands of cases which may occur in
our passage through life. It is this power of abstraction
and generalization which may be truly said to give to
our reasoning faculties the wings of the eagle. We are
enabled thereby to soar to a height, and command an
extension of prospect which cannot be reached by those
who do not cultivate this power. It is the great labor
saving machinery in the economy of the human mind,
and belongs in all its perfection only to a few gifted and
educated minds, capable of rising to an altitude far, very
far beyond the common intellectual level. According
to the degree in which this noble faculty is possessed,
the metaphysicians have made a division of the human
race, very unequal as to numbers, into men of general
principles or philosophers, and men of detail. The former
possessing minds inured to habits of abstraction and
generalization, the latter more conversant with mere
individuals and individual character, with the details
and minutiae of common life, and therefore better suited
to the ordinary routine of every day duties in the common transactions of the world. But if I may borrow
the sentiment of Mr. Burke, when the path is broken
up, the high waters out, and the file affords no precedent, then men who possess minds of comprehension
and generalization, are required to lead the way through
the chaos of difficulties and dangers which surround
them.
When we compare the sexes together in this particular, we see that man has generally, and necessarily must
have, from the very nature and requisitions of that extended sphere in which he moves, a greater share of
this power of abstraction and generalization than is
commonly found developed in the female mind. The
confined sphere in which woman moves, requires, as I
have already observed, close attention to all the details
and minutiae of the little events daily and hourly transpiring around her. Instead of studying the general
traits of character which belong alike to the whole
human family, she studies most deeply the individual
characters of those who compose her household, and her
circle of friends and relatives. Her mind becomes one
of detail and minute observation, rather than of abstrac
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