The study of sociology / by Herbert Spencer.

  • Herbert Spencer
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The study of sociology / by Herbert Spencer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    459/468 (page 441)
    tions that came under his personal observation as clergyman and as guardian. 5 The comparisons ordinarily made between the minds of men and women are faulty in many ways, of which these are the chief:— Instead of comparing either the average of women with the average of men, or the elite of women with the elite of men, the common course is to compare the elite of women with the average of men. Much the same erroneous impression results as would result if the relative statures of men and women were judged by putting very tall women side by side with ordinary men. Sundry manifestations of nature in men and women, are greatly per- verted by existing social conventions upheld by both. There are feelings which, under our predatory regime, with its adapted standard of propriety, it is not considered manly to show; but which, contrari- wise, are considered admirable in women. Hence repressed manifesta- tions in the one case, and exaggerated manifestations in the other; lead- ing to mistaken estimates. The sexual sentiment comes into play to modify the behaviour of men and women to one another. Bespecting certain parts of their general characters, the only evidence which can be trusted is that fur- nished by the conduct of men to men, and of women to women, when placed in relations which exclude the personal affections. In comparing the intellectual powers of men and women, no proper distinction is made between receptive faculty and originative faculty. The two are scarcely commensurable ; and the receptivity may, and frequently does, exist in high degree where there is but a low degree of originality, or entire absence of it. Perhaps, however, the most serious error usually made in drawing these comparisons is that of overlooking the limit of normal mental power. Either sex under special stimulations is capable of manifest- ing powers ordinarily shown only by the other; but we are not to consider the deviations so caused as affording proper measures. Thus, to take an extreme case, the mammae of men will, under special excita- tion, yield milk : there are various cases of gynaecomasty on record, and in famines infants whose mothers have died have been thus saved. But this ability to yield milk, which, when exercised, must be at the cost of masculine strength, we do not count among masculine attributes. Similarly, under special discipline, the feminine intellect will yield products higher than the intellects of most men can yield. But we are