to be ravished away beyond her own will.  But all the time she only desires to be forced toward those things which are essentially and profoundly agreeable to her.  A man who fails to realize this has made little progress in the art of love.  “I like being knocked about and made to do things I don’t want to do,” a woman said, but she admitted, on being questioned, that she would not like to have much pain inflicted, and that she might not care to be made to do important things she did not want to do.  The story of Griselda’s unbounded submissiveness can scarcely be said to be psychologically right, though it has its artistic rightness as an elaborate fantasia on this theme justified by its conclusion.

This point is further illustrated by the following passage from a letter written by a lady:  “Submission to the man’s will is still, and always must be, the prelude to pleasure, and the association of ideas will probably always produce this much misunderstood instinct.  Now, I find, indirectly from other women and directly from my own experience, that, when the point in dispute is very important and the man exerts his authority, the desire to get one’s own way completely obliterates the sexual feeling, while, conversely, in small things the sexual feeling obliterates the desire to have one’s own way.  Where the two are nearly equal a conflict between them ensues, and I can stand aside and wonder which will get the best of it, though I encourage the sexual feeling when possible, as, if the other conquers, it leaves a sense of great mental irritation and physical discomfort.  A man should command in small things, as in nine cases out of ten this will produce excitement.  He should advise in large matters, or he may find either that he is unable to enforce his orders or that he produces a feeling of dislike and annoyance he was far from intending.  Women imagine men must be stronger than themselves to excite their passion.  I disagree.  A passionate man has the best chance, for in him the primitive instincts are strong.  The wish to subdue the female is one of them, and in small things he will exert his authority to make her feel his power, while she knows that on a question of real importance she has a good chance of getting her own way by working on his greater susceptibility.  Perhaps an illustration will show what I mean.  I was listening to the band and a girl and her fiance came up to occupy two seats near me.  The girl sank into one seat, but for some reason the man wished her to take the other.  She refused.  He repeated his order twice, the second time so peremptorily that she changed places, and I heard him say:  ’I don’t think you heard what I said.  I don’t expect to give an order three times.’

    “This little scene interested me, and I afterward asked the girl
    the following questions:—­

    “‘Had you any reason for taking one chair more than the other?’