good chances; one is
nearly always a duffer, thrown in in the telling to make the bourgeoisie
marvel.

16. A Conspiracy of Silence

The reason why all this has to be stated here is simply that women,
who could state it much better, have almost unanimously refrained from
discussing such matters at all. One finds, indeed, a sort of general
conspiracy, infinitely alert and jealous, against the publication of the
esoteric wisdom of the sex, and even against the acknowledgment that any
such body of erudition exists at all. Men, having more vanity and less
discretion, area good deal less cautious. There is, in fact, a whole
literature of masculine babbling, ranging from Machiavelli's appalling
confession of political theory to the egoistic confidences of such men
as Nietzsche, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Casanova, Max Stirner, Benvenuto
Cellini, Napoleon Bonaparte and Lord Chesterfield. But it is very rarely
that a Marie Bashkirtsev or Margot Asquith lets down the veils which
conceal the acroamatic doctrine of the other sex. It is transmitted
from mother to daughter, so to speak, behind the door. One observes its
practical workings, but hears little about its principles. The causes
of this secrecy are obvious. Women, in the last analysis, can prevail
against men in the great struggle for power and security only by keeping
them disarmed, and, in the main, unwarned. In a pitched battle, with the
devil taking the hindmost, their physical and economic inferiority
would inevitably bring them to disaster. Thus they have to apply their
peculiar talents warily, and with due regard to the danger of arousing
the foe. He must be attached without any formal challenge, and even
without any suspicion of challenge. This strategy lies at the heart of
what Nietzsche called the slave morality--in brief, a morality based
upon a concealment of egoistic purpose, a code of ethics having for its
foremost character a bold denial of its actual aim.

III. Marriage

17. Fundamental Motives

How successful such a concealment may be is well displayed by the
general acceptance of the notion that women are reluctant to enter
into marriage--that they have to be persuaded to it by eloquence and
pertinacity, and even by a sort of intimidation. The truth is that, in a
world almost divested of intelligible idealism, and hence dominated by a
senseless worship of the practical, marriage offers the best career that
the average woman can re