ample. A lady who
talked really well would no doubt run some risk of being rather
unpleasantly isolated at first, but surely, if she tried, she might
ultimately find accomplices. You could do much, to begin with, by
recommending high-toned literature, and gradually awakening an interest
in what is truly worth attention. It seems lamentable that every
cultivated woman should be forced out of the society of her own sex, and
made to depend upon ours for conversation of that kind which is an
absolute necessity to the intellectual. The truth is, that women so
displaced never appear altogether happy. And culture costs so much
downright hard work, that it ought not to be paid for by any suffering
beyond those toils which are its fair and natural price.

LETTER VIII.

TO A LADY OF HIGH CULTURE.

Greatest misfortune in the intellectual life of women--They do not
hear truth--Men disguise their thoughts for women--Cream and
curacoa--Probable permanence of the desire to please women--Most truth
in cultivated society--Hopes from the increase of culture.

I think that the greatest misfortune in the intellectual life of women
is that they do not hear the truth from men.

All men in cultivated society say to women as much as possible that
which they may be supposed to wish to hear, and women are so much
accustomed to this that they can scarcely hear without resentment an
expression of opinion which takes no account of their personal and
private feeling. The consideration for the feelings of women gives an
agreeable tone to society, but it is fatal to the severity of truth.
Observe a man of the world whose opinions are well known to you,--notice
the little pause before he speaks to a lady. During that little pause he
is turning over what he has to say, so as to present it in the manner
that will please her best; and you may be sure that the integrity of
truth will suffer in the process. If we compare what we know of the man
with that which the lady hears from him, we perceive the immense
disadvantages of her position. He ascertains what will please her, and
that is what he administers. He professes to take a deep interest in
things which he does not care for in the least, and he passes lightly
over subjects and events which he knows to be of the most momentous
importance to the world. The lady spends an hour more agreeably than if
she heard opinions which would irritate, and prognostics which would
alarm her, but she has