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.
Historians have sometimes puzzled their brains to
assign a philosophical cause for this or that course of
conduct of a great statesman, when a woman would have
told you at once that it originated from some little family
feud, or perhaps from an ardent attachment to some
sweet, coy, unobtrusive, timid creature, the bare men tion of whose name on the page of history would
crimson her cheeks with the deep blush of modesty.
The historian may be puzzled to account for the sudden
and injudicious march of Mareschal Villars, at the head
of the grand army of France, towards Brussels. Reader,
the true cause was that he was anxious to see his wife,
who was staying in a small town on the road to Brus sels.* It has been said that the course which Cicero
pursued towards the conspirators in Rome, resulted
principally from the instigation of Terentia, who had
her private reasons for hating them. And the hatred
of the great orator for Clodius the Demagogue was
likewise inspired principally by his wife Terentia, on
account of her jealousy of Clodia, the sister of Clodius,
who had been anxious to marry Cicero. Now in regard to all those more impalpable and delicate causes
which take their origin in the heart, the affections, the
social relations, woman is much more sagacious than
mall; she sees them when they escape his vision; and
consequently her penetration may enable her to makediscoveries or applications which man would never
have thought of. Hence, I repeat again, the counsel
of woman ought ever to be taken before we enter upon
important events. Dufresnay has shown that many
conspiracies even have failed because not confided to
woman. And many a man who has kept his transactions secret from his wife, has rued the consequences.
Rousseau tells us that while travelling through Switzerland he frequently found the views and advice of
Therese of the utmost importance; sometimes rescuing
him from the great difficulties that surrounded him,
and which could not have been so well overcome without her. And yet he tells us that she was not a wvell
educated woman. The fact is, woman excels man, as
has been well observed, in attaining herpresent purposes;
her invention is prompt, her boldness happy, and her
execution facile.
Even the warnings and cautions of women, for which
no good reason can be assigned, ought not always to be
disregarded. They are frequently inferences drawn
from that nice discernment and tact so characteristic of
the sex amid the little incidents of life, or from their
capability of reading the varying features of the human
countenance, or marking more distinctly the altered
shades of manner, even when individuals are attempting to wear the mask of deception and hypocrisy.
Caesar's wife, we are told, implored him not to go to the
Senate Chamber of Rome on the fatal day of the Ides
of March; and although she could give no better reasons
for her solicitude than dreams, visions, and strange feelings, yet it is more than probable that these were produced by the acute, the penetrating, microscopic observation of a woman's mind upon the events and characters
which surrounded her in Rome. Brutus, Cassius, Dolabella, &c. might conceal their purposes during their
daily intercourse, from him who had led the armies of
* This celebrated general of Louis XIV. according to St.
Simon, often turned his army aside from the great object which
he had ila view, from some such causes as these.
VOL. 1.-87
Rome to victory in Gaul, and Britain, and Illirium, and
had, by the majesty and force of his own mind, over turned the liberties of his country, and grasped in his
single hand the sceptre of the world, but, in all proba bility, they were unable to wear that countenance and
assume those manners which would impose upon the
more minute discernment of Caesar's wife, amid the
troubles, solicitudes, and suspicions, incident to a season
of revolution. Pontius Pilate would have released the
Saviour of the world, and quieted a troubled conscience,
if he had given heed to the solemn warning of his wife,
to have nothing to do with that just man, (Jesus.) Yet
she could give no better reason for her warning, than
that she had suffered many things that day in a dream,
because of him.
Conversation-Epistolary Writing.
I come now to the consideration of the relative merits
of the sexes, in that most pleasing attitude in which we
generally find them indulging familiar converse in the
social circle. And here, 1 think, we shall be forced to
assign the palm to the fair sex. The social talents of
woman all over the world, where her education is not
too much neglected, are superior to those of man. Her
conversation we generally find more varied, more natural, more allied with the interesting incidents and events
of life than that of man. She is a nicer, and more acute
observer of what is passing around her. She treasures
up more interesting details and occurrences; she is
much better acquainted with that most interesting of
all subjects, the play of the social and amorous affections; and she studies the most pleasing and fascinating manner of communicating her thoughts to
others; hence she becomes the ornament and the boast
of the social circle.
Some persons may imagine the conversational
power to bear some proportion to the general strength
of the intellect, and that, as man cultivates the higher
powers of the mind more thoroughly than woman, he
must therefore excel her in the social circle. This,
however, is very far from being true. The beauty of
conversation depends on two things: 1st. On the character of the facts, anecdotes, knowledge, &c. which
form the staple of what is said. 2d. On the manner
and style of communicating them. Now I conceive that
the subjects most generally pleasing in promiscuous
society, are not those of a deeply philosophical or abstract character, not those which require the greatest
stretch of intellect to comprehend, but those subjects
generally which have reference to the ordinary occurrences and transactions of life; those in which all are
interested, and which all can comprehend: those, in
fine, which concern ourselves immediately and particularly. Grave disquisitions and lectures on abstract subjects, are out of place in the drawing room; those who
indulge much in them may be called learned, but they
are generally considered intolerable prosers. The divine
who is always talking to us about grace and its operation on the heart, the lawyer who is lavish of his profound learning on contingent remainders and executory
devises, or the physician who tries to instruct us in the
mysteries of animal life, by recounting theory after
theory upon the subject, are ever looked upon as great
bores in the social circle. Not only, however, is the
character of the subject of importance in conversation,
but there must be variety. No natter how important
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