When on the one side the mere sentimentalist says, "Let woman
be content to be dainty and exquisite, a protected piece of social
art and domestic ornament," then I merely repeat it to myself
in the "other form," "Let Mrs. Buttons be content to be dainty
and exquisite, a protected piece of social art, etc." It is
extraordinary what a difference the substitution seems to make.
And on the other hand, when some of the Suffragettes say in their
pamphlets and speeches, "Woman, leaping to life at the trumpet call
of Ibsen and Shaw, drops her tawdry luxuries and demands to grasp
the sceptre of empire and the firebrand of speculative thought"--
in order to understand such a sentence I say it over again in the
amended form: "Mrs. Buttons, leaping to life at the trumpet call
of Ibsen and Shaw, drops her tawdry luxuries and demands to grasp
the sceptre of empire and the firebrand of speculative thought."
Somehow it sounds quite different. And yet when you say Woman I
suppose you mean the average woman; and if most women are as capable
and critical and morally sound as Mrs. Buttons, it is as much as we
can expect, and a great deal more than we deserve.
But this study is not about Mrs. Buttons; she would require
many studies. I will take a less impressive case of my principle,
the principle of keeping in the mind an actual personality when we
are talking about types or tendencies or generalized ideals.
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