LXIV. And perhaps father Malebranche adopts the same mode of reasoning;
for, although he was much more benign towards the women, and in his art
of investigating truth acknowledges, that in the faculty of discerning
sensible things, they are known to have the advantage of the men;
still he insists, they are much inferior to them in the comprehension
of abstract ideas; and assigns as the reason of it, the softness of
their brains. It is very well known, that people search for these
physical causes, and after some experience, when they are, or fancy
they are sure of their effects, apply them in their own manner, to suit
their own doctrines. This being the case, the consequence which results
from hence is, that the author himself falls into the same intellectual
disease, of which he had intended to cure all mankind. This error, is
produced by common pre-occupations, and principles ill considered and
digested. He without doubt made this judgment, either to avoid being
led away by the common opinion, or from having observed, that women of
ability, or those who are reputed such, reason with more facility, and
talk more pertinently than the men, on such subjects as appertain to
sensible things, and with no less precision than them (if in such cases
they do not observe a total silence) on abstracted matters; but this
proceeds, not from an inequality of talents, but from a difference of
application and practice. Women employ themselves, and think much more
than the men, about dainty eatables, setting out a table, ornaments of
dress, and other things of this kind; from whence it happens, that they
discourse and talk of them more pertinently, and with greater facility
than those of the other sex. On the contrary, it is very rare, that
any woman attends to questions of theory, or bestows the least thought
on the subject of abstract ideas, and therefore it is no wonder they
seem dull, when the conversation turns on such matters. If you observe
them, you will find, that women who are informed, and are of a gay
cast, and who sometimes take pleasure in discoursing on the delicacies
of platonic love, whenever it happens that they argue with the men on
this point, they greatly out-do even the most discreet ones, who have
not applied themselves to explore these bagatels of fancy: this in a
great measure confirms the remarks we have made above.
LXV. In general, any person whatever, be his capacity ever so great,
will appear more rude than a man of little penetration, if he talks
with him of such matters as the other has had experience in and he has
never applied himself to understand. A labourer in husbandry, whom God
has endowed with a most penetrating genius, which is no uncommon case,
if it happens that his attention has never been fixed on any other
thing but his work, would appear greatly inferior to the most heavy
politician, if he should ever chance to converse with him about reasons
of state; and the most wise politician, if he is merely a politician,
who should set himself to talk about the disposition of troops, and the
fighting of battles, would utter a thousand absurdities; insomuch,
that if a man skilled in military affairs was to hear him, he would
be apt to conclude he was mad, as Hannibal thought the great Asiatic
orator was, who, in the presence of king Antiochus and him, undertook
to argue about the art and conduct of war.
LXVI. It happens exactly the same in the business we are now treating
of. A woman of excellent understanding, whose thoughts are constantly
occupied on domestic management and the care of her house, without
scarce ever hearing matters of a superior nature talked of, or, if
it does happen that she hears any such thing, she rarely pays much
attention to it: her husband, though much inferior to her in talents,
converses frequently abroad with able men of various professions, by
communicating with whom, he acquires variety of knowledge, or he enters
into public business, and receives important information. Instructed
in this manner, if it happens at any time that in the company of his
wife, these matters are talked of, she, who by the means and in the way
we have just mentioned, can gain but little aid or assistance, if she
happens to speak just what occurs to her on the subject, from the want
of instruction, must appear a little defective in point of knowledge,
let her be ever so acute and penetrating. Her husband, and the others
who hear her, conclude from thence, that she is a fool; and he in
particular, plumes himself on his superior talents and abilities.
LXVII. As it fared with this woman, so it fares with an infinity of
others, who, though they may have much more sense than the men they
happen to be in company with, are condemned by them as unfit to reason
on any kind of subject: but the truth is, that their not being able to
reason at all, or their reasoning ill on such matters, does not proceed
from a want of talents, but from a want of being properly informed;
and without this assistance, a person, endued with even an angelic
understanding, could not discourse pertinently on any subject whatever.
The men at the same time, although inferior to them in understanding,
shine and triumph over them with an air of importance, because they
happen to be better provided with information.
LXVIII. Over and above this advantage of being better informed, the
men have another, which is of great moment, to wit, that they are much
accustomed to meditate, discourse, and reason upon such matters, it
being in a manner their daily practice; while the women hardly ever
bestow a thought on them: on which account, whenever these things are
started in conversation, the men are prepared to talk upon them, and
the women are taken by surprize.
LXIX. Finally, men, by their reciprocal communication with each other
upon such subjects, gain mutual instruction, each individual, receiving
lights and information from the observations and experience of those we
converse with; and therefore, when they argue upon these matters, they
not only make use of their own understandings and improvements, but
they likewise avail themselves of what they have acquired from their
neighbours; so that many times, what is expressed and explained by the
mouth of one man, is not the produce of one understanding only, but of
many. The women, who in their ordinary conversations, don’t discourse
on these sublime questions, but rather of their domestic amusements and
employments, furnish to each other no reciprocal lights or assistance,
with respect to these great points; in consequence of which, whenever
they happen to be present when such subjects are agitated, you should
add to their talking unprepared, the disadvantage, of each of them
being confined to the use of no more than their own proper lights and
ideas.
LXX. These advantages, by means of which, a man of very short
penetration, may say much more, and much more to the purpose, upon
noble subjects, than a woman of great perspicuity, are of such moment,
that one who has not attended to the above reflections, if he should
happen to be present at a conversation of this sort, between a very
keen woman and a very heavy man, might be apt to conclude, that he was
a discreet person, and she a fool.
LXXI. In fact, the want of these reflections, has engendered in many
men, and some of them in other respects wise and prudent ones, this
great contempt for the understanding of women; but what is most
laughable and ridiculous, they have exclaimed so much and so loudly
against them, and have asserted with such confidence the poverty and
scantiness of their understandings, that many, if not the bulk of the
world, have been idle enough to believe them.