able to stomach such an affront. It is a weapon as
discreditable as the poison of the Borgias.

Thus, on humane grounds, a conspiracy of silence surrounds the delusion
of female beauty, and so its victim is permitted to get quite as much
delight out of it as if it were sound. The baits he swallows most are
not edible and nourishing baits, but simply bright and gaudy ones. He
succumbs to a pair of well-managed eyes, a graceful twist of the body,
a synthetic complexion or a skilful display of ankles without giving
the slightest thought to the fact that a whole woman is there, and
that within the cranial cavity of the woman lies a brain, and that the
idiosyncrasies of that brain are of vastly more importance than all
imaginable physical stigmata combined. Those idiosyncrasies may make for
amicable relations in the complex and difficult bondage called marriage;
they may, on the contrary, make for joustings of a downright impossible
character. But not many men, laced in the emotional maze preceding, are
capable of any very clear examination of such facts. The truth is that
they dodge the facts, even when they are favourable, and lay all stress
upon the surrounding and concealing superficialities. The average stupid
and sentimental man, if he has a noticeably sensible wife, is almost
apologetic about it. The ideal of his sex is always a pretty wife, and
the vanity and coquetry that so often go with prettiness are erected
into charms. In other words, men play the love game so unintelligently
that they often esteem a woman in proportion as she seems to disdain
and make a mock of her intelligence. Women seldom, if ever, make that
blunder. What they commonly value in a man is not mere showiness,
whether physical or spiritual, but that compound of small capacities
which makes up masculine efficiency and passes for masculine
intelligence. This intelligence, at its highest, has a human value
substantially equal to that of their own. In a man's world it at
least gets its definite rewards; it guarantees security, position, a
livelihood; it is a commodity that is merchantable. Women thus accord it
a certain respect, and esteem it in their husbands, and so seek it out.

11. Biological Considerations

So far as I can make out by experiments on laboratory animals and by
such discreet vivisections as are possible under our laws, there is
no biological necessity for the superior acumen and circumspection
of women. That is to say