"WOMAN'S UNDERSTANDING.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 78, 28 September 1907, Page 4

"WOMAN'S UNDERSTANDING.

Mr. Irving R. Bacon, like many .'a predecessor, has set to work for define the distinction between tho me^al^quali^es of the typical man and womafi,-^ and Has, apparently, something new -toVeayy ■ Tf , however, his choice of terms -be noted, it will bo seen that he uses "-understanding" in a sense of his bvrp". *;Tjnderstanding, in ilia accepted 1 sense, ,is' an intellectual faculty ; he, On"" the other hand, applies the term to intellectual'perceptions which belong to the voluntary or aftecLional side of the mind, which, are independent of reasoning and not infrequently" opposed to 4s deductions, wherefore the "jnero man" is usually inclined to make' light of them. When thu is boras in mind, it will be scan that Mr. Bacon's results do not diUer esentially irom those- arrived at by ."a fairly unanimous consensus of opinion of those who have devoted attention and study to the subject. II« writes : r ~ Thsro has probably never been a time when ' some, woiasn, were net looked up to \Vi£S ■"atliairaiion for -t heir ;mental oxtainnienfcsVßy- even l!He greatest .Of men. •'Bat^theio women constitute "the, "exception," -ikv'tiii?' slogan' whaieVtith 'man, conscious ,pf - % llis "own mental Superiority, relegates- th^- rest' of 'womankind back to the* lowlands. $f, at.]"be&V lespevtablo mediocrity." '*•>■> \ ( '- ' : < , ?J!3n (Wihojrhold- this „ view ax£,> In' the mainj" not' actuated by ' disrespect, nor, do th3V intend to ba unjust in their ■estimate of ths mentality of women. T'aeir opinion is ths- result of . observations which, although teen and extensile and comprehensive enough, have nevertheless been lacking in depth. They have but £.kimmed tha but face, and because thsy have failed to find ths same kind of mentality in women as they themselves possess, they havo roundly denied that women possessed any mentality worth spsaking of at all. That the average man possesses a greater amount of reason than the average woman is undeniable. Tha evidences are so numerous in daily life, indeed, it is the very ground upon which those who deny mentality *to women have basad their deductions. But reason is only one of the faculties ■of the human mind. There is another infinitely more important faculty — the understanding. This, although ifris content to allow reason to sit upon the throne, has really the right of primogeniture, and is the parent of much that is noble in life. And it is pre-eminently in .regard to understanding that wbman shines. For it is probabla that tie greatest masculine reasbnev bas .not quite as much understanding as even an average woman. Tho understanding is an intuitive faculty. It deals ivjth individual perceptions. It brings before tha mental , eye the visible , s world,. and enables us to sco things just as they pressnt themselves. Now, the Divine builder of the universo has see,n fit to construct men with a preponderance of reason and women with 'v proponderancs ot understanding. In t&6--srfsricas,- therefore, and in lo^ic, and whateveir, requires exact reasoning, men win 'always excel women. But in whatever i 3 within the province of intuition, in whatever requires quick wit and unerring tact, women wUI ever be superior to men. Another consequence flowing from this- preponderance of understanding in women is that they are better able than men to converse on subjects jpl. an individual , nature, suclj, as descriptions of particular parsons or events. This is why tiray are more prono to goseip than men. Tho latter, on the other hand, by virtue of the preponderance of reason, are more at home in discourse on anything involving generalities, abstract ideas. Men are thus better judges of classes of parsons ; women, of individual pereons. There is, therefore, something ihcongruous in a female prime ininijter, just as there is in a male fortune-teller. From the same mental prepondsrances springs ths fact that women arc not as rigid disciplarians as men — for rules 4 (ths product of reason) are not at all ap important to them as the exigen cies call-ed for by each individual cace. Aud for the same reason women are not a.s money-mad as men. Mon?y is one of the"greate?t, ono of the most- important of generalizations, it is the abstract -rejn'eEGntntivo of all these' things that can be purchased ; and, therefore, men are often prone to forego the actual possession of the piuchasabje objects so long as they can, but acquire more and more of that which reprrwents those objects in the abstract. Women, on tha other hand, are more intent upon obtaining possession of ths actual objects themselves.