WOMEN IN PARTICULAR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19531, 14 July 1925, Page 5

WOMEN IN PARTICULAR.

Men who profess, foolishly, to understand women completely, and other men who pretend, equally foolishly, to be wholly mystified by them, are constantly writing and speaking about them. They make bright, quotable assertions that show how slight ’ their own perception is, they give voice to generalisations in which common sense is swept away. , They write of us earnestly, sceptically, whimsically ( this is particularly hard to boar), or sentimentally (which, is amusing). They take always an extreme view and then proceed to finfjord incite the purticului woman to women in general as they see them. . ’We cannot, of course, expect of the ordinary male the pioneering discoveries of a Meredith, the intuitive understanding and the beautiful, unsentimental tenderness of Mr Hardy, or the crystal clear comprehension of Mr Galsworthy. But at least good sense might bo regarded. Good sense suggests tliat no two women are alike, that no man over understood “woman” or a woman completely, because perfect, all-inclusive understanding of another human being is not granted to any human being, and that the mystery of woman is one with the mystery of life, and not a separate little box of glamour on its own at- all. , . , A man and woman m love with eacn other are part of the wonder of life, and the man can be as wonderful as tbo woman. Ho can be as difficult and as easy to understand. Ho can bo as delightful and as exasperating. He can retain his freshness and conipan ion able ness all through the years of marriage, and he can grow dull and dowdy and mentally inert, just as women can. He can be guilty of that last enormity of taking his wife for granted, as she may take him. Mon can be as vain as women, and as gossipy; they can Be as little self-regard-ing and as discreet. No two men are alike. Women, it is true, sometimes argue from the particular to the general, and judge all men by their experience of, one. But they do it to a bosom friend by way of a little relief, and do not assume the air of an oracle speaking words of profound wisdom. —M. L., in the Daily Chronicle.