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more promptly and faithfully. The physiognomy of woman is consequently more expressive and more changeable. Some one has said, very truthfully, that "man has ten expressions, woman a hundred; he one smile, she a thousand."
Her voice, which is an index of the force and inner qualities of the being, is sweet, and flexible, and suppliant; more appropriate to the different intonations of song. That of man, more grave and prolonged, is better adapted to public discussions and command. It has been already shown that his vocal organs are firmer and more developed. The influence of the accent, the gestures, the looks, no less than the sentiments and feelings, and the words which these excite, and by which they are in turn excited, make up the charm of conversation. Epistolary excellence also results from some of these attributes.
The curiosity of woman is proverbial, and justly so. It results less from love of truth than from her necessity for varied emotions.[1] Man searches laboriously everything which can enlarge the sphere of his intelligence; woman, everything which amuses or interests her. The secrets of private life have for her far greater attractions than the secrets of science. As woman is more dependent upon her surroundings than man, as she is less distinct from the universal whole, and as the instincts have more dominion over her, she is more sensibly convinced of the idea of God. For man, God is some thing; for woman. He is some One.
- ↑ It is related of an illustrious professor, that, having to treat a very delicate subject, he notified the women of his class that he should rely upon their absence from the next lecture. The appointed day arrived, and in place of twenty women he beheld more than a hundred.
