THE WOMAN OF TOMORROW.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2929, 1 August 1911, Page 7

THE WOMAN OF TOMORROW.

A FRENCH PHILOSOPHER ON "THE DEATH OP THE ETERNAL FEMININE."

M. Jean Finot, the well-known French writer on philosophy and so-

riology, author of "The Prejudice of Races," and " Philosophy of Longevity," contributed to the "La Revue"—his own fortnightly, by the way—a remarkable article entitled •"Ihe Death of ths ' Eternal Feminine.' "

"What will woman be when she is deprived of those virtues which made her the desired and worshipped object of Man?" M. Finot wonders. Will she not lose her own feminine qualities, and her charm when she steps into the arena where men struggle strenuously ? Will not her impending transformation doom her to an irreparable fall from the pedestal on which man has placed her ? Numberless are those who, of late, have pondered over this momentous problem, for it concerns every man, as a lover, as a husband, and as a father.

DIFFERENT, BUT STILL

CHARMING

M. Finot has attentively followed and studied the various phases of the modern woman's evolution, and his keen psychological insight and his powers of logical deduction enable him to state that wc need not be too much alarmed. "Yes, the ' eternal feminine ' is changing in

shape and essence," he admits ; "the - womtn of politics will be different from the home-woman, but she will remain a woman all the same. She will be unable to do without those qualities which make her charm, she will be compelled to retain them be-

cause love has to remain triumphant and the race must continue."

THE NOTION OF THE " FATAL "

WOMAN

After this hopeful introduction, M. Finot faces the "new" woman boldly, and in very forcible terms speaks his mind about her and does her justice.

Woman's weakness and her instincts of prevarication were her chief characteristics in the past. "Man Strength meant Woman-Child or WomanSlave," a s he originally puts it. Like all weak and oppressed beings she had to conceal or disguise her thoughts and to be cunning. That was her only arm against man and his strength. Her feline ways illustrated the so-called mysteries of her soul, and poets represented her as a deceitful, artful, and sphinx-like creature. And the notion of the "fatal" woman was incidentally born.

MORE SINCERE

All this has changed. Woman has become more and more sincere as she ascended the social scale. "Far from hypocritically enduring her inferiority, she openly claims her rights. She lifts her head, and even makes her 'master bend his. She has entered many careers which were the exclusive domain of man. As doctor, lawyer, clerk, writer, journalist, she reveals solid qualities which command the respect and the fear of man."

And she shows an absolute honesty, too. . . "The modern woman is far more anxious to be an honest 'man' than a dangerous goddess."

A NEW IDEAL OF BEAUTY

With the woman of yesterday, how-

ever, has disappeared several old- • world notions, that of beauty, above all others. "Physical beauty, a rare privilege and one independent of our will," says M. Finot, "is yielding to intelligence, easier to conquer, a nd a more lasting advantage. The modern woman worships at the shrines of Thought, of Energy, 0 f Health. She often replaces and nearly always completes the • supremacy of features by elegance, which is the supremacy of Taste, Wit, and Intellect. Those divine Isvellers of the Fate' 6 injustices, frequently replace absent Beauty." If you wish fully to realise the transformation of woman, look at the women of bygone days. The portraits of women by the greatest masters, Titian, Holbein, Reynolds, all bear witness to that vague shyness which characterised our ancestresses. There is instinctive humility in their physiognomy. ' They are always "dominated" beings. What a striking difference between those portraits and those of the women of to-day ! The majority of these have proud, bold eyes that look at one straight in the fas?. "They are the eyes of victors or beings who are bonnd to vanquish." '"Now wfttch ' her * in a drawingroom or in the street. She used to be slow and languid ; she has become energetic. She is no longer a doll. "She is not less beautiful, she has a different beauty. And this fact is so general that it has passed unnoticed," for things that affect all men are seldom perceived by them.

PROGRESS NOTHING WILL STOP

As for the seriousness of that evolution, M. Finot has no doubt about it : "'Nothing," he asserts, "will stop the progress of woman ; she is urged on by unconquerable desires to enlarge her life and increase her happiness."

Another effect of that metamorphosis is that while in the past energetic, courageous, or enterprising women were hailed as saints and heroines, such women are nowadays to be counted in thousands, not to say in millions. "The woman of to-day is vastly different from the woman whom our ancestors knew, and she will not be the same as the woman of cue twenty-fifth or of the thirteenth century."

Again, women are not loved for the same reasons as they used to be, thinks M. Finot. Also, man's idol has not the same age. A re-

markable phenomenon. . . Longevity is on the increase, and the age for loving and being loved is no longer what it was.—C, in the London "Mail."