than with general principles; they judge rather by intuitive perceptions than by deliberate reasoning or past experience.  They are, however, usually superior to men in nimbleness and rapidity of thought, and in the gift of tact or the power of seizing speedily and faithfully the finer inflections of feeling, and they have therefore often attained very great eminence as conversationalists, as letter-writers, as actresses, and as novelists.

“Morally, the general superiority of women over men is, I think, unquestionable.  If we take the somewhat coarse and inadequate criterion of police statistics, we find that, while the male and female populations are nearly the same in number, the crimes committed by men are usually rather more than five times as numerous as those committed by women; and although it may be justly observed that men, as the stronger sex, and the sex upon whom the burden of supporting the family is thrown, have more temptations than women, it must be remembered, on the other hand, that extreme poverty which verges upon starvation is most common among women, whose means of livelihood are most restricted, and whose earnings are smallest and most precarious.  Self-sacrifice is the most conspicuous element of a virtuous and religious character, and it is certainly far less common among men than among women, whose whole lives are usually spent in yielding to the will and consulting the pleasures of another.  There are two great departments of virtue:  the impulsive, or that which springs spontaneously from the emotions, and the deliberative, or that which is performed in obedience to the sense of duty; and in both of these I imagine women are superior to men.  Their sensibility is greater, they are more chaste both in thought and act, more tender to the erring, more compassionate to the suffering, more affectionate to all about them....  In active courage women are inferior to men.  In the courage of endurance they are commonly their superiors....  In the ethic of intellect they are decidedly inferior.  To repeat an expression I have already employed, women very rarely love truth, though they love passionately what they call ‘the truth’ or opinions they have received from others, and hate vehemently those who differ from them.  They are little capable of impartiality or doubt; their thinking is chiefly a mode of feeling; though very generous in their acts, they are rarely generous in their opinions....  They are less capable than men of perceiving qualifying circumstances, of admitting the existence of elements of good in systems to which they are opposed, of distinguishing the personal character of an opponent from the opinions he maintains.  Men lean most to justice, and women to mercy.  Men are most addicted to intemperance and brutality, women to frivolity and jealousy.  Men excel in energy, self-reliance, perseverance, and magnanimity, women in humility, gentleness, modesty, and endurance....  Their religious or devotional realisations are incontestably