nders herself to the man of whom she is enamored, or who
has conquered or hypnotized her. She is vanquished by his embraces and
follows him submissively, and in such a state of mind she is capable
of any folly.

Although more violent and impetuous in his love, man loses his
_sang-froid_ on the whole much less than woman. We can therefore say
that the relative power of sentiment is on the average greater in
woman, in spite of her passive role.

I cannot protest too strongly against the way in which men of the day
disparage women and misunderstand them. In the way in which a young
girl abandons herself to their sexual appetites, in caresses, and in
the ecstasy of her love, they think they see the proof of a purely
sensual eroticism, identical to their libidinous desire for coitus,
while in reality she usually does not think of it, at any rate at
first. The first coitus is usually painful to woman, often repugnant.
Many are the cases where young girls, even when they knew the terrible
social and individual dangers of their weakness, even when they have
perhaps once already experienced the consequences, let the man abuse
them without a word of complaint, without a trace of sexual pleasure
or venereal orgasm, simply to please the one who desires them, because
he is so good and amiable, and because refusal would give him so much
pain. In his violent passion and in his egoism, man is generally
incapable of understanding the power of this stoicism of a mind which
surrenders itself in spite of all dangers and all its interests. He
confounds his own appetites with the sentiments of the woman, and
finds in this false interpretation of feminine psychology the excuses
for the cowardice of which he gives proof when he yields to his
passions. The psychology of the young girl who surrenders herself has
been admirably depicted by Goethe in _Gretchen_ ("Faust"), as well as
by de Maupassant on several occasions.

It is necessary to know all these facts in order to estimate at its
true value the ignominy of our social institutions and their bearing
on woman's life. If men did not so misunderstand women, and especially
if they were aware of the deep injustice of our customs and laws with
regard to them, the better ones, at least, would think twice before
seducing young girls, to abandon them afterward with their children. I
am only speaking now of true love and not of the extortion so often
practiced by women of low character, or those a