Page "belles_lettres" Paragraph 518

Into the texture of this tapestry of history and human drama Henrietta, as every artist delights to do, wove strands of her own intuitive insights into human nature and -- especially in the remarkable story of the attraction and conflict between two so disparate and fervent characters as this pair -- into the relations of men and women: `` In their relations, she was the giver and he the receiver, nay the demander.

His feeling always exacted sacrifices from her.

One is so accustomed to think of men as the privileged who need but ask and receive, and women as submissive and yielding, that our sympathies are usually enlisted on the side of the man whose love is not returned, and we condemn the woman as a coquette.

The very firmness of her convictions and logical clearness of her arguments captivated and stimulated him to make greater efforts ; ;

usually, this is most exasperating to men, who expect every woman to verify their preconceived notions concerning her sex, and when she does not, immediately condemn her as eccentric and unwomanly.

She had the opportunity that few clever women can resist, of showing her superiority in argument over a man.

Women themselves have come to look upon matters in the same light as the outside world, and scarcely find any wrong in submitting to the importunities of a stronger will, even when their affections are withheld.

She was exposing herself to temptation which it is best to avoid where it can consistently be done.

One who invites such trials of character is either foolhardy, overconfident or too simple and childlike in faith in mankind to see the danger.

In any case but the last, such a course is sure to avenge itself upon the individual ; ;

the moral powers no more than the physical and mental, can bear overstraining.

And, in the last case, a bitter disappointment but too often meets the confiding nature.

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