wished to be women. On the contrary, they were ever ready to taunt one
another, at any sign of weakness, with,

"'Art thou not like the women, who,'--


The passage ends various ways, according to the occasion and rhetoric
of the speaker. When they admired any woman, they were inclined to
speak of her as 'above her sex.' Silently I observed this, and feared
it argued a rooted scepticism, which for ages had been fastening on
the heart, and which only an age of miracles could eradicate. Ever I
have been treated with great sincerity; and I look upon it as a signal
instance of this, that an intimate friend of the other sex said, in a
fervent moment, that I 'deserved in some star to be a man.' He was
much surprised when I disclosed my view of my position and hopes, when
I declared my faith that the feminine side, the side of love, of
beauty, of holiness, was now to have its full chance, and that, if
either were better, it was better now to be a woman; for even the
slightest achievement of good was furthering an especial work of our
time. He smiled incredulously. 'She makes the best she can of it,'
thought he. 'Let Jews believe the pride of Jewry, but I am of the
better sort, and know better.'

"Another used as highest praise, in speaking of a character in
literature, the words 'a manly woman.'

"So in the noble passage of Ben Jonson:

'I meant the day-star should not brighter ride,
Nor shed like influence, from its lucent seat;