is soon obliged to recognize that the directive
will of the family is only, in general, represented externally by the
master. Man parades his authority much more often than he puts it into
practice; he lacks the perseverance, tenacity and elasticity which
constitute the true power of will, and which are peculiar to woman. It
is needless to say that I am only speaking of the average and that
there are many women whose will power is feeble. But these easily
become the prey of prostitution, which causes their disappearance.
This is perhaps one of the causes which have strengthened by selection
the will power in women. Man is impulsive and violent as regards his
will power, but often inconstant and irresolute, yielding as soon as
he has to strive persistently for a certain object. From these facts
it naturally results that, on the average, it is the man in the family
who provides the ideas and impulses, but the woman who, with the
finesse of her tact and perseverance, instinctively makes the
distinction between the useful and the harmful, utilizing the former
and constantly combating the latter; not because she is fundamentally
superior, but because she is more capable of dominating herself, which
proves the superiority of her will power.

Nothing is more unjust than to disparage one sex relatively to the
other. The parthenogenesis of the lower animals having ceased in the
vertebrates, each sex is indispensable, not only to the preservation
of species, but also to each conception or reproduction of the
individual. Both are thus equivalent and belong to each other as the
two halves of a whole, one being incapable of resisting without the
other. Everything which benefits one of the halves benefits the other.
If by the magic wand of a fairy, the male half or the female half of
our humanity, such as it is to-day, was rendered capable and obliged
to reproduce alone, men would soon degenerate owing to the weakness of
their will combined with their sensual passions, and women from their
incapacity to raise their intellectual level by means of creative
ideas.

We need not dwell here on the numerous psychological peculiarities of
woman, inherent in her capacity as mother, nor on those of man
adapted to his muscular strength and to his capacity as protector of
the family. These are derived from sexual differences which are
mentioned in Chapter V. Nor need we describe correlative differences
of less importance which are well known a