Emma was a
woman. That women very often are more endowed than the generality of
men we are ready to admit; and their cause has been taken up by Lady
Morgan, Mrs Jamieson, and many others who can write much better than we
can. When we say their cause, we mean the right of equality they would
claim with our sex and not subjection to it. Reading my Lady Morgan the
other day, which, next to conversing with her, is one of the greatest
treats we know of we began to speculate upon what were the causes which
had subjected woman to man; in other words, how was it that man had got
the upper hand, and kept it? That women's minds were not inferior to
men's we were forced to admit; that their aptitude for cultivation is
often greater, was not to be denied. As to the assertion that man makes
laws, or that his frame is of more robust material, it is no argument,
as a revolt on the part of the other sex would soon do away with such
advantage; and men, brought up as nursery-maids, would soon succumb to
women who were accustomed to athletic sports from their youth upwards.
After a great deal of cogitation we came to the conclusion, that there
is a great difference between the action in the minds of men and women;
the machinery of the latter being more complex than that of our own sex.
A man's mind is his despot: it works but by one single action; it has
one ruling principle--one propelling power to which all is subservient.
This power or passion (disguised and dormant as it may be in feeble
minds) is the only one which propels him on; this _primum mobile_, as it
may be termed, is ambition, or, in other words, self-love; everything is
sacrificed to it.

Now, as in proportion as a machine is simple so is it strong in its
action--so in proportion that a machine is complex, it becomes weak; and
if we analyse a woman's mind, we shall find that her inferiority arises
from the simple fact, that there are so many wheels within wheels
working in it, so many compensating balances (if we may use the term,
and we use it to her honour), that although usually more right-minded
than man, her strength of action is lost, and has become feeble by the
time that her decision has been made. What will a man allow to stand in
the way of his ambition--love? no--friendship? no--he will sacrifice the
best qualities, and, which is more difficult, make the worst that are in
his disposition subservient to it. He moves only one great principle,
one propelling