or? To us the answer
seems plain. Among the peoples of a lower civilization, mother-right
conditions prevail generally, or have not yet been long overcome. The
_role_ that woman there plays raises her above the necessity of seeking
for the man, the man seeks her, and to this end, ornaments himself and
grows vain. With the people of a higher grade, especially with all the
nations of civilization, excepting here and there, not the man seeks the
woman, but the woman him. It happens rarely that a woman openly takes
the initiative, and offers herself to the man; so-called propriety
forbids that. In point of fact, however, the offering is done by the
manner of her appearance; by means of the beauty of dress and luxury,
that she displays; by the manner in which she ornaments herself, and
presents herself, and coquets in society. The excess of women, together
with the social necessity of looking upon matrimony as an institute for
support, or as an institution through which alone she can satisfy her
sexual impulse and gain a standing in society, forces such conduct upon
her. Here also, we notice again, it is purely economic and social causes
that call forth, one time with man, another with woman, a quality that,
until now, it was customary to look upon as wholly independent of social
and economic causes. Hence the conclusion is justified, that so soon as
society shall arrive at social conditions, under which all dependence of
one sex upon another shall have ceased, and both are equally free,
_ridiculous vanity and the folly of fashion will vanish, just as so many
other vices that we consider to-day uneradicable, as supposedly inherent
in man_. Schopenhauer, as a philosopher, judges woman as one-sidedly as
most of our anthropologists and physicians, who see in her only the
sexual, never the social, being. Schopenhauer was never married. He,
accordingly, has not, on his part, contributed towards having one more
woman pay the "debt of life" that he debits woman with. And this brings
us to the other side of the medal, which is far from being the
handsomer.

Many women do not marry, simply because they cannot. Everybody knows
that usage forbids woman to offer herself. She must allow herself to be
wooed, i. e., chosen. She herself may not woo. Is there no wooer to be
had, then she enters the large army of those poor beings who have missed
the purpose of life, and, in view of the lack of safe material
foundation, generally fall a prey