Proceeding now on the assumption that these things are so, and that
man feels that he and woman belong to different intellectual castes,
we come now to the question as to whether it is man who is selfish
when he excludes women from his institutions, or woman when she
unceasingly importunes for admittance. And we may define as _selfish_
all such conduct as pursues the advantage of the agent at the cost of
the happiness and welfare of the general body of mankind.

We shall be in a better position to pronounce judgment on this
question of ethics when we have considered the following series of
analogies:

When a group of earnest and devout believers meet together for special
intercession and worship, we do not tax them with selfishness if they
exclude unbelievers.

Nor do we call people who are really devoted to music selfish if,
coming together for this, they make a special point of excluding the
unmusical.

Nor again would the imputation of selfishness lie against members of a
club for black-balling a candidate who would, they feel, be
uncongenial.

Nor should we regard it as an act of selfishness if the members of a
family circle, or of the same nation, or of any social circle, desired
to come together quite by themselves.

Nor yet would the term selfish apply to an East End music hall
audience when they eject any one who belongs to a different social