Page:The Unexpurgated Case Against Woman Suffrage.djvu/92

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ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE SUFFRAGE
89

nary which is desired for reality, and treats the undesired reality which is out of sight as non-existent—building up for itself in this way, when biased by predilections and aversions, a very unreal picture of the external world.

The explanation of this is to be found in all the physiological attachments of woman's mind:[1] in the fact that mental images are in her over-intimately linked up with emotional reflex responses; that yielding to such reflex responses gives gratification; that intellectual analysis and suspense of judgment involve an inhibition of reflex responses which is felt as neural distress; that precipitate judgment brings relief from this physiological strain; and that woman looks upon her mind not as an implement for the pursuit of truth, but as an instrument for providing her with creature comforts in the form of agreeable mental images.

In order to satisfy the physical yearning

  1. Certain of these have already been referred to in the letter printed in the Appendix (vide p. 167 infra).