al," and based on radical feminine
characters, such as modesty, affectability, and sympathy, which have an
organic basis in the feminine constitution and can therefore never
altogether be changed, feminine dissimulation seems scarcely likely to
disappear. The utmost that can be expected is that it should be held in
check by the developed sense of moral responsibility, and, being reduced
to its simply natural proportions, become recognizably intelligible.

It is unnecessary to remark that there can be no question here as
to any inherent moral superiority of one sex over the other. The
answer to that question was well stated many years ago by one of
the most subtle moralists of love. "Taken altogether," concluded
Senancour (_De l'Amour_, vol. ii, p. 85), "we have no reason to
assert the moral superiority of either sex. Both sexes, with
their errors and their good intentions, very equally fulfil the
ends of nature. We may well believe that in either of the two
divisions of the human species the sum of evil and that of good
are about equal. If, for instance, as regards love, we oppose the
visibly licentious conduct of men to the apparent reserve of
women, it would be a vain valuation, for the number of faults
committed by women with men is necessarily the same as that of
men with women. There exist among us fewer scrupulous men than
perfectly honest women, but it is easy to see how the balance is
restored. If this question of the moral preeminence of one sex
over the other were not insoluble it would still remain very
complicated with reference to the whole of the species, or even
the whole of a nation, and any dispute here seems idle."

This conclusion is in accordance with the general compensatory
and complementary relationship of women to men (see, e.g.,
Havelock Ellis, _Man and Woman_, fourth edition, especially pp.
448 et seq.).

In a recent symposium on the question whether women are morally
inferior to men, with special reference to aptitude for loyalty
(_La Revue_, Jan. 1, 1909), to which various distinguished French
men and women contributed their opinions, some declared that
women are usually superior; others regarded it as a question of
difference rather than of superiority or inferiority; all were
agreed that when they enjoy the same independence as men, women
are quite as loyal as men.