This is most strikingly shown in regard to
painting, where mastery of technique is at least as much within their
power as within ours--and hence they are diligent in cultivating it;
but still, they have not a single great painting to boast of, just
because they are deficient in that objectivity of mind which is so
directly indispensable in painting. They never get beyond a subjective
point of view. It is quite in keeping with this that ordinary women
have no real susceptibility for art at all; for Nature proceeds in
strict sequence--_non facit saltum_. And Huarte[1] in his _Examen de
ingenios para las scienzias_--a book which has been famous for
three hundred years--denies women the possession of all the higher
faculties. The case is not altered by particular and partial
exceptions; taken as a whole, women are, and remain, thorough-going
Philistines, and quite incurable. Hence, with that absurd arrangement
which allows them to share the rank and title of their husbands they
are a constant stimulus to his ignoble ambitions. And, further, it is
just because they are Philistines that modern society, where they
take the lead and set the tone, is in such a bad way. Napoleon's
saying--that _women have no rank_--should be adopted as the right
standpoint in determining their position in society; and as regards
their other qualities Chamfort[2] makes the very true remark: _They
are made to trade with our own weaknesses and our follies, but not
with our reason.
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