riterion
of police statistics, we find that, while the male and female
populations are nearly the same in number, the crimes committed by men
are usually rather more than five times as numerous as those committed
by women; and although it may be justly observed that men, as the
stronger sex, and the sex upon whom the burden of supporting the family
is thrown, have more temptations than women, it must be remembered, on
the other hand, that extreme poverty which verges upon starvation is
most common among women, whose means of livelihood are most restricted,
and whose earnings are smallest and most precarious. Self-sacrifice is
the most conspicuous element of a virtuous and religious character, and
it is certainly far less common among men than among women, whose whole
lives are usually spent in yielding to the will and consulting the
pleasures of another. There are two great departments of virtue: the
impulsive, or that which springs spontaneously from the emotions, and
the deliberative, or that which is performed in obedience to the sense
of duty; and in both of these I imagine women are superior to men. Their
sensibility is greater, they are more chaste both in thought and act,
more tender to the erring, more compassionate to the suffering, more
affectionate to all about them.... In active courage women are inferior
to men. In the courage of endurance they are commonly their
superiors.... In the ethic of intellect they are decidedly inferior. To
repeat an expression I have already employed, women very rarely love
truth, though they love passionately what they call 'the truth' or
opinions they have received from others, and hate vehemently those who
differ from them. They are little capable of impartiality or doubt;
their thinking is chiefly a mode of feeling; though very generous in
their acts, they are rarely generous in their opinions.... They are less
capable than men of perceiving qualifying circumstances, of admitting
the existence of elements of good in systems to which they are opposed,
of distinguishing the personal character of an opponent from the
opinions he maintains. Men lean most to justice, and women to mercy. Men
are most addicted to intemperance and brutality, women to frivolity and
jealousy. Men excel in energy, self-reliance, perseverance, and
magnanimity, women in humility, gentleness, modesty, and endurance....
Their religious or devotional realisations are incontestably more
vivid.... But though mo