toward courtship. The means
of attraction she employs are so highly elaborated, and her technique
is so finished, that she is really more active in courtship than man.
We speak of man as the wooer, but falling in love is really mediated
by the woman. By dress, behavior, coquetry, modesty, reserve, and
occasional boldness she gains the attention of man and infatuates
him. He does the courting, but she controls the process. "Er glaubt zu
schieben, und er wird geschoben."

The condition of limited stimulation, also, in which woman finds
herself as a result of the control by man of wealth, of affairs, of
the substantial interests of society, and even of her own personality,
leads woman to devote herself to display as an interest in itself,
regardless of its effect on men. In doing this she is really falling
back on an instinct. One of the most powerful stimulations to either
sex is glitter, in the most general sense, and the interest in showing
off begins in the coloration and plumage of animals, and continues as
ornament in the human species. It is true that the wooing connotation
of ornament was originally its most important one, and that it was
characteristic of man in particular; but woman has generalized it as
an interest, and as a means of self-realization. She seeks it as a
means of charming men, of outdoing other women, and as an artistic
interest; and her attention often takes that direction to such
a degree that its acquisition means satisfaction, and its lack
discontent. Sometimes, indeed, when a woman is married and knows that
she is "sped," she drops the display pose altogether, tends to lose
herself in household interests, and to become a slattern. On the
other hand, she often makes marriage the occasion of display on a more
elaborate scale, and is pitiless in her demands for the means to
this. A glance at the windows of our great stores shows that men
have organized their business in a full appreciation of these facts.
Dressing, indeed, becomes a competitive game with women, and since
their opponents and severest critics are women, it turns out curiously
enough that they dress even more with reference to the opinion of
women than for men.

The earth hath bubbles as the water has,
And these are of them.

It would, of course, be absurd to censure woman too greatly for these
frailties, and it would be very unjust to imply that all women share
them. Some women, in adapting themselves to the situation, fol