Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/135

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EQUALITY OF THE SEXES.
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is it true in all the minuter, shades of difference that exist in the world of nature. If there be any difference in form, there is a corresponding difference, be it ever so minute, in the producing cause. Keeping this in view, it may readily be seen, that what makes man a man, and woman a woman, is not the body, but the mind; and, as the body is formed from, by, or through the mind as a cause, the mind of a man must be different from the mind of a woman, because he has a different external conformation. This difference is not a slight one; it is a difference that pervades every part of the body.

The question now comes—“In what does this difference specifically consist?” Before attempting to answer this fully, let it be remarked, that this difference is a uniting difference, not a separating one; and that inherent in the two sexes is an instinct that tends to a union of one with the other. This union, let it be further stated, is necessary to the formation of a perfect being: until it does take place, both the man and the woman must be, in a certain sense, imperfect—he only a thinking man, and she only a loving man. But when it is effected, then both unite to form one truly perfect man, with thought and affection in their fullest power.

As clearly as it is possible for us to do it, will