According to recent scientific fiuditgs, it comes to this: man is secretly conscious of a biological inferiority, since he cannot bear children. Therefore, he must Be continually propped up by those who do bear them, in order to feel 2 sure-enough place in the universe, Women probably sensed this fact before psychologists brought it to the daylight, which accounts for their protection of him, even from himself. It's almost impossible to find any record of their real opinion about men. One woman, named Mary Astell, broke the silence in 1721 in a letter to a lady, where, with brutal candour, she divided men into groups of braggards and bullies, dandies and squires, and showed how, whatever their outward appearance, all were dependent upon women for daily comfort and happiness. This lone instance is proof of women's desire to shield men from discovery, for the book remained unknown and unread. Between then and now is stillness, vast, discreet and abysmal.
In contrast to this delicacy, whole libraries are filled with criticism, analyses and interpretations of women, by men; while, during the crusade for suffrage, they were obliged to listen for hours to public discussion of their abilities and disabilities. It is doubtful if men could have survived such a series of campaigns for enfranchisement. They would probably have succumbed at the first general discussion of their frailties and weaknesses, the weighing and measuring of their capacities,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.