ffirmed, that women are distinguished by good
memories, in particular, for details. Now to regard this as
necessarily a mental sexual character is entirely to mistake the
facts. A tenacious memory for details that are often quite
unimportant, belongs to all people of limited impressions and
unskilled in thought; it maybe noticed in all children. Without a wide
experience of life and practice in constructive thinking the mind
inevitably falls back on fact-memory. I knew an agricultural labourer
who could only tell his age by reckoning the years he had been
dung-spreading. Thus a good memory for details may be a sign of an
untrained mind. It is an entirely different thing from that acuteness
of true memory, which ensures the retention of all experiences that
have made an impression on the mind, with a corresponding rejection of
what has failed to interest. Thus before anything can be said with
regard to this memory power of woman, we have to decide on what it
depends--_i.e._ is it really a mental quality of woman, or is it
simply dependent on, and brought about by, the circumstances of her
life and a limited experience? But to answer this question I shall
wait till later in this chapter.

It would be easy to follow a similar train of argument with regard to
each of these mental differences of the sexes. Few women have yet
entered even the threshold of the mental world of men, and those who
have done this stand in the position of strangers or visitors. To be
in it, in any true sense, would be to be born into it and to live in
it by right; to absorb the same experiences, not consciously and by
special effort, but unconsciously as a child absorbs words and learns
to speak. Whenever this happens, and not till then, shall we be in a
position to compare positively the mental efficiency of woman with
men. At present no more can be affirmed than that the differences in
woman's mental expression are no greater than they must be in view of
the existing differences in their experience. And I am not sure, even
if such similarity of mental life were possible, that it would be of
benefit to women. Indeed, I am almost sure that it would not. What is
needed is an ungrudging recognition of the value of the special
feminine qualities. This would do much to lessen the regrettable
competition that undoubtedly prevails at present, which is due, it
seems to me, to the foolish denial of the value of any save masculine
characteristics in our ar