DICTATES OF HEART

Taranaki Daily News, 10 February 1934, Page 18 (Supplement)

DICTATES OF HEART

WOMAN’S INSTINCT SOUND. “Dictates of the heart? Of course girls will follow them, but allowing for the modem trend of unconventionality and independence, it is, on the whole, a safe course.” This statement was made by a doctor who is interested in psychological problems to a representative of a Brisbane exchange.

Byron, he thought, gave the best answer to Dr. Ida Spelleman, librarian of the British Phrenological Society, who, according to a cable message, said girls must beware of being swayed by the dictates of the heart, or by that part of the head which is in league with the heart.

“Byron wrote,” the doctor recalled, “that man’s Icve was of man’s life a thing apart, it was woman’s whole existence.” Byron knew something of his subject, he remarked. Woman had an extra sense. A creature of impulse, she jumped to conclusions, and formed likes and dislikes without apparent reason. Instinct largely guided her, however, and perhaps the accumulated wisdom of the ages. She summed up a man, and found him either above reproach or impossible. If she had any mental balance she was right nine times out of ten, although a man might disagree. It was the protective instinct. She was fitted by Nature for the domestic and maternal life, and chose her mate as Nature told her. The exceptions only proved the rule. The heart was in a shrewd liaison with the head. So first impressions were lasting, and judgment was vindicated. Perhaps the London doctor was thinking of the modem flapper, he said. He had in mind the average, normal woman or girl. She might have industrial, business, or professional leanings, but she recognised matrimony as her goal, and was pretty sane when she gave her heart.