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Woman physiologically considered as to mind, morals, marriage, matrimonial slavery, infidelity and divorce / By Alexander Walker.

  • Walker, Alexander, 1779-1852.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Woman physiologically considered as to mind, morals, marriage, matrimonial slavery, infidelity and divorce / By Alexander Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    them to an excess that men never feel; that hatred is in them nearer akin to love than to indifference; and that they never pardon wounds inflicted on vanity or injuries in love. In conformity with these elementary circum- stances, the IMAGINATION, a peculiarly and strongly marked function in woman, is highly susceptible of excitement, and yields easily to every excess, These circumstances, moreover, being added to her weakness and timidity, lead her to seek support in superstition, and to prefer the most enthusiastic and extravagant theological doctrines. In all this,the particular and instinctive influence of the matrix has greateffects. Plutarchaccordingly in- forms us, that the Pythoness of Delphi ascended the tripod to prophesy only once a month; and perhaps at no other periods, could even she have imagined “that she felt a presentiment of the approach of the God, and amidst wild agitations, tearing of hair, and foaming of the mouth, have exclaimed, “I feel —I feel the God! Lo, he appears!—Behold the God !”—and have repeated his discourse and his oracles correctly. In modern times, it is chiefly through the enthu- siasm of woman that religious creeds have been promulgated. ‘‘The nun in the cloister,” says Diderot, “ feels herself elevated to the skies; her soul pours itself forth in the bosom of the divinity ; her essence mingles with the divine essence. She