barren utilitarianism of everyday life, and no less above the maudlin
sentimentalities that men seek pleasure in. They offer a means of
escape, convenient and inviting, from that sordid routine of thought
and occupation which women revolt against so pertinaciously.




41.


The Ethics of Women


I have said that the religion preached by Jesus (now wholly extinct
in the world) was highly favourable to women. This was not saying,
of course, that women have repaid the compliment by adopting it.
They are, in fact, indifferent Christians in the primitive sense, just as
they are bad Christians in the antagonistic modern sense, and
particularly on the side of ethics. If they actually accept the
renunciations commanded by the Sermon on the Mount, it is only in
an effort to flout their substance under cover of their appearance.
No woman is really humble; she is merely politic. No woman, with
a free choice before her, chooses self-immolation; the most she
genuinely desires in that direction is a spectacular martyrdom.
No woman delights in poverty. No woman yields when she can
prevail. No woman is honestly meek.


In their practical ethics, indeed, women pay little heed to the