victims on the mat simultaneously, and has to lose one. But they are
seldom, if ever, both good chances; one is nearly always a duffer,
thrown in in the telling to make the bourgeoisie marvel.




16.


A Conspiracy of Silence



The reason why all this has to be stated here is simply that women,
who could state it much better, have almost unanimously refrained
from discussing such matters at all. One finds, indeed, a sort of
general conspiracy, infinitely alert and jealous, against the
publication of the esoteric wisdom of the sex, and even against the
acknowledgment that any such body of erudition exists at all. Men,
having more vanity and less discretion, area good deal less cautious.
There is, in fact, a whole literature of masculine babbling, ranging
from Machiavelli's appalling confession of political theory to the
egoistic confidences of such men as Nietzsche, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, Casanova, Max Stirner, Benvenuto Cellini, Napoleon
Bonaparte and Lord Chesterfield. But it is very rarely that a Marie
Bashkirtsev or Margot Asquith lets down the veils which conceal the
acroamatic doctrine of the other sex. It is transmitted from mother
to daughter, so to speak, behind the door. One observes its practical
workings, but hears little about its principles. The causes of this