ily. The subject is too complex and too obscure for me to venture so
to do, and I would ask my readers to remember throughout this chapter
that I am not laying down the law, but trying only to arrive at the
greatest possible frequency of truth. This is a short research of
tendencies. There are human tendencies, such as belief in a divine
spirit, painting pictures, making war, composing songs. Are there any
special female tendencies? Given that we glimpse what distinguishes man
from the beast, is there anything that distinguishes woman from man? In
the small space at my disposal I cannot pretend to deal extensively with
the topic. One reason is the difficulty of securing true evidence.
Questions addressed to women do not always yield the truth; nor do
questions addressed to men; for a desire to please, vanity, modesty,
interfere. But the same question addressed to a woman may, according to
circumstances, be _sincerely_ answered in four ways,--

1. Truthfully, with a defensive touch, if she is alone with another
woman.

2. With intent to cause male rivalry if she is with two men.

3. With false modesty and seductive evasiveness if she is with one
man and one woman.

4. With a clear intention to repel or attract if she is with a man
alone.

And there are variations of these four cases! A man investigating
woman's points of view often finds the response more emotional than
intellectual. Owing to the system under which we live, where man is a
valuable prey, woman has contracted the habit of trying to attract. Even
aggressive insolence on her part may conceal the desire to attract by
exasperating. These notes must, therefore, be taken only as hints, and
the reader may be interested to know that they are based on the
observation of sixty-five women, subdivided as follows: Intimate
acquaintance, five; adequate acquaintance, nineteen; slight
acquaintance, forty-one; married, thirty-nine; status uncertain, eight;
celibate, eighteen. Ages, seventeen to sixty-eight (average age, about
thirty-five).

2

It is most difficult to deduce the quality of woman's intellect from her
conduct, because her impulses are frequently obscured by her policy. The
physical circumstances of her life predispose her to an interest in sex
more dominant than is the case with man. As intellect flies out through
the window when emotion comes in at the door, this is a source of
complications. The intervention of