hey act when the opportunity arrives. And then their
conscience does not trouble them so much as we fancy; for in the
darkest recesses of their heart, they are aware that in committing a
breach of their duty towards the individual, they have all the
better fulfilled their duty towards the species, which is infinitely
greater.[1]

[Footnote 1: A more detailed discussion of the matter in question may
be found in my chief work, _Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung_, vol.
ii, ch. 44.]

And since women exist in the main solely for the propagation of the
species, and are not destined for anything else, they live, as a rule,
more for the species than for the individual, and in their hearts
take the affairs of the species more seriously than those of the
individual. This gives their whole life and being a certain levity;
the general bent of their character is in a direction fundamentally
different from that of man; and it is this to which produces that
discord in married life which is so frequent, and almost the normal
state.

The natural feeling between men is mere indifference, but
between women it is actual enmity. The reason of this is that
trade-jealousy--_odium figulinum_--which, in the case of men does not
go beyond the confines of their own particular pursuit; but, with
women, embraces the whole sex; since they have only one kind of
business. Even when they meet in the street, women look at one another
like Guelphs and Ghibellines. And it is a patent fact that when two
women make first acquaintance with each other, they behave with more
constraint and dissimulation than two men would show in a like case;
and hence it is that an exchange of compliments between two women is a
much more ridiculous proceeding than between two men. Further, whilst
a man will, as a general rule, always preserve a certain amount of
consideration and humanity in speaking to others, even to those who
are in a very inferior position, it is intolerable to see how proudly
and disdainfully a fine lady will generally behave towards one who is
in a lower social rank (I do not mean a woman who is in her service),
whenever she speaks to her. The reason of this may be that, with
women, differences of rank are much more precarious than with us;
because, while a hundred considerations carry weight in our case,
in theirs there is only one, namely, with which man they have found
favor; as also that they stand in much nearer relations with one
another tha