Women know that men do not know women.--Ahem!--Men in this respect are
somewhat different:
A man usually regards not ungenerously the qualities of his successful
rival; a woman never. The former will candidly admit the possession of a
more potent charm; the latter will trace it to the crudest of causes. In
a word,
The unsuccessful man blames, not his rival, nor the women he loses, but
himself.
The unsuccessful woman blames, never herself, but either the outrageous
meretriciousness of her rival, or the blindness of the man she loses.
From which it may once more be deduced that
The unsuccessful woman blames, never herself, but either the outrageous
meretricousness of her rival, or the blindness of the man she loses.
From which it may once more be deduced that
Men are won by more primitive means than are women. And, alas for men
(alas also for many women),
The majority of men are so blind, so abominably blind, that they cannot
distinguish the women who are really in love with them, from the women
who pretend to be in love with them, but are not. For because,
So completely do women know men, that it is easy for any woman to delude
any man. This is one of the reasons why
Every woman is the rival of every other woman:
This woman will be herself, her own true, simple, and virtuous self; will
resort to no subterfuge, adopt no meretricious methods, scorn to rely
upon tactics or strategy, be ever reserved, reluctant, shy;--yet fail.
This other woman will openly and blatantly, overtly and unconcernedly,
assail the masculine heart with word and look and gesture--and win.
--Ach! the purblindess of the masculine heart! how it exasperates even
the woman!
* * *
That man has sunk low who cannot recognize and respect the remnant of sex
even in a degraded woman.
* * *
Woman can persuade themselves--and men--far more easily than can a man,
of the propriety of their actions.
* * *
Man is powerless before an injured woman. He has no more dangerous foe
than this.
* * *
It is the man who seeks excuses. The woman braves it out.
* * *
Coquetry is Love's lady's-maid. She is accessory and ancillary to Love;
she bedizens Love, she tricks her out in gay apparel.
When Love's lord and master enters, my lady's maid is dismissed. (It
might be as well sometimes to recall her.) And
Nudity ousts coquetry.
* * *
Chastity is a word with as many shades of meaning as there are peoples
--perhaps as there are individuals--upon the face of this habitable
world.
Women think chastity is a virtue primarily insisted upon and enforced by
men. They mistake. 'T is a virtue primarily insisted upon and enforced
by women: For
When that divine, unique thing Love comes to a woman, if she be not
chaste, it is she who deplores the fact. The man may easily enough be
deceived; her own heart a woman can never deceive. Besides,
With what righteous indignation women themselves visit unchastity!
* * *
Between the sexes, resentment is the worst of defensive weapons: in the
hands of a man it is like a cow-hide shield opposed to Mauser bullets; in
the hands of a woman, like a parasol on a cloudy day. Since
Woman penetrates resentment by ridicule; man treats it with dull
indifference. And