the primitive brute instinct to retain as much as possible for the ego,
irrespective of justice or humanity, which dominates all the lower moral
types of humanity, both male and female, which acts here. The lawyer or
physician who objects to the entrance of women to his highly fenced
professional enclosure, would probably object yet more strenuously if it
were proposed to throw down the barriers of restraint and monetary charges,
which would result in the flooding of his profession by other males: while
the mechanic, who resists the entrance of woman into his especial field, is
invariably found even more persistently to oppose any attempt at entrance
on the part of other males, when he finds it possible to do so.

This opposition of the smaller type of male, to the entrance of woman into
the callings hitherto apportioned to himself, is sometimes taken as
implying the impossibility of fellowship and affection existing between the
men and women employed in common labour, that the professional jealousy of
the man must necessitate his feeling a hatred and antagonism towards any
one who shares his fields of toil. But the most superficial study of human
life negates such a supposition. Among men, in spite of the occasional
existence of the petty professional jealousies and antagonism, we find,
viewing society as a whole, that common interests, and above all common
labours, are the most potent means of bringing them into close and friendly
relations; and, in fact, they seem generally essential for the formation of
the closest and most permanent human friendships. In every walk of human
life, whether trade, or profession, we find men associating by choice
mainly with, and entertaining often the profoundest and most permanent
friendships for, men engaged in their own callings. The inner circle of a
barrister's friendships almost always consists of his fellow-barristers;
the city man, who is free to select his society where he will, will be
oftenest found in company with his fellow-man of business; the medical
man's closest friendship is, in a large number of cases, for some man who