It will be said, perhaps, that the greater nervous susceptibility of womenis a disqualification for practice, in anything but domestic life, by renderingthem mobile, changeable, too vehemently under the influence of the moment,incapable of dogged perseverance, unequal and uncertain in the power of usingtheir faculties. I think that these phrases sum up the greater part of theobjections commonly made to the fitness of women for the higher class ofserious business. Much of all this is the mere overflow of nervous energyrun to waste, and would cease when the energy was directed to a definiteend. Much is also the result of conscious or unconscious cultivation; aswe see by the almost total disappearance of "hysterics" and fainting-fits,since they have gone out of fashion. Moreover, when people are brought up,like many women of the higher classes (though less so in our own countrythan any other), a kind of hot-house plants, shielded from the wholesomevicissitudes of air and temperature, and untrained in any of the occupationsand exercises which give stimulus and development to the circulatory andmuscular system, while their nervous system, especially in its emotionaldepartment, is kept in unnaturally active play; it is no wonder if thoseof them who do not die of consumption, grow up with constitutions liableto derangement from slight causes, both internal and external, and withoutstamina to support any task, physical or mental, requiring continuity ofeffort. But women brought up to work for their livelihood show none of thesemorbid characteristics, unless indeed they are chained to an excess of sedentarywork in confined and unhealthy rooms. Women who in their early years haveshared in the healthful physical education and bodily freedom of their brothers,and who obtain a sufficiency of pure air and exercise in after-life, veryrarely have any excessive susceptibility of nerves which can disqualify themfor active pursuits. There is indeed a certain proportion of persons, inboth sexes, in whom an unusual degree of nervous sensibility is constitutional,and of so marked a character as to be the feature of their organisation whichexercises the greatest influence over the whole character of the vital phenomena.
This constitution, like other physical conformations, is hereditary, andis transmitted to sons as well as daughters; but it is possible, and probable,that the nervous temperament (as it is called) is inherited by a greaternumber of women than of men. We will assume this as a fact: and let me thenask, are men of nervous temperament found to be unfit for the duties andpursuits usually followed by men? If not, why should women of the same temperamentbe unfit for them? The peculiarities of the temperament are, no doubt, withincertain limits, an obstacle to success in some employments, though an aidto it in others. But when the occupation is suitable to the temperament,and sometimes even when it is unsuitable, the most brilliant examples ofsuccess are continually given by the men of high nervous sensibility. Theyare distinguished in their practical manifestations chiefly by this, thatbeing susceptible of a higher degree of excitement than those of anotherphysical constitution, their powers when excited differ more than in thecase of other people, from those shown in their ordinary state: they areraised, as it were, above themselves, and do things with ease which theyare wholly incapable of at other times. But this lofty excitement is not,except in weak bodily constitutions, a mere flash, which passes away immediately,leaving no permanent traces, and incompatible with persistent and steadypursuit of an object. It is the character of the nervous temperament to becapable of sustained excitement, holding out through long-continued efforts.
It is what is meant by spirit. It is what makes the high-bred racehorse runwithout slackening speed till he drops down dead. It is what has enabledso many delicate women to maintain the most sublime constancy not only atthe stake, but through a long preliminary succession of mental and bodilytortures. It is evident that people of this temperament are particularlyapt for what may be called the executive department of the leadership ofmankind. They are the material of great orators, great preachers, impressivediffusers of moral influences. Their constitution might be deemed less favourableto the qualities required from a statesman in the cabinet, or from a judge.
It would be so, if the consequence necessarily followed that because peopleare excitable they must always be in a state of excitement. But this is whollya question of training. Strong feeling is the instrument and element of strongself-control: but it requires to be cultivated in that direction. When itis, it forms not the heroes of impulse only, but those also of self-conquest.
