void the hazard of any conclusion. I confess
that a most careful study of the many differing opinions has left me
in a state of mental confusion. One is tempted to adopt those views
that fit in with one's own observations and to neglect others probably
equally right that do not do this. What is wanted is a much larger
number of careful experiments and scientific observations. Some of
these have been made already, and their value is great, but the basis
is still too narrow for any safe generalisations. All kinds of error
are clearly very likely to arise. I may, perhaps, be allowed to state
my surprise, not to say amusement, at the conviction evidenced by some
male writers in their estimate of the character of my sex. I find
myself given many qualities that I am sure I have not got, and
deprived of others that I am equally certain I possess. Thus, I have
found myself wondering, as I sought sincerely to find truth, whether I
am indeed woman or man? or, to be more exact, whether the female
qualities in me do not include many others regarded as masculine? This
has forced the thought--is the difference between the sexes, after
all, so complete?

I am aware that what I am now saying appears to be in contradiction
with my other statements. I cannot help it. The fact is, that truth is
always more diverse than we suspect. This is a question that reaches
so deeply that apparent contradiction is sometimes inevitable. We find
we are rooted into outside things, and we melt away, as it were, into
them, and no woman or man can say, "I consist absolutely of this or
that"; nor define herself or himself so certainly as to be sure where
the differences between the sexes end and the points of contact begin.
Many qualities of the personality appear no more female than male; no
more belonging to the woman than the man. And yet, underlying these
common qualities there is a deep under-current in which all our nature
finds expression in our sex.

Science has of late years advanced far in this matter, yet it has not
much more than begun. There is, as yet, no approximation to unanimity
of decision, though the way has been cleared of many errors. This is
all that has really been done by the ablest observers, who seem,
however, unwilling, if one may say so without presumption, to accept
the conclusions to which their own experiments and observations would
seem to point. Take an illustration. The early certitude on the
sex-differences in the weight