he stands; and his life can come to no right development within itself, but must suffer rather perpetual violence in its nature, if it be not allowed to unfold itself in this its only normal and legitimate form. Morality, including, as it does, the conception of personality or the self-conscious and self-active force of reason and will, is something general and universal by its very nature. It implies throughout the idea of fellowship and union, the organic marriage of reciprocally necessary and mutually supplemental parts, working into each other and conspiring in a common whole. In the power of this universal, omnipotent and irreversible law, the life of every man stands, from the beginning, in virtue of its spiritual or moral constitution. He can never be true to himself at a single point; he can never exercise a single moral function, a single act of intelligence or will, in a truly free way, without going beyond his own person, and mingling, with conscious coalescence, in the sea of life with which he is surrounded. By one of the greatest discoveries in modern science, placing the name of Schleiermacher in the sphere of ethics on the same high level with that of Kepler in the sphere of physics, the general moral function, as it may be styled, in man, is found to resolve itself, by a process of analysis which we have no time here to follow, into four cardinal forms of action, two lying on the side of the understanding, and two on the side of the will. Each of these can hold properly only under a social character, by which the individual, in order that he may be at all complete in himself, is forced to enter into fellowship with his race. Thus arise four great spheres of moral union, in the proper constitution of the world's life. The first is exhibited to us predominantly in the idea of art; the second, in the idea of science; the third, in the idea of sociability, (geselligkeit,) corresponding very much with the conception of play, in its widest and most dignified sense; the fourth and last, in the idea of business. These four orders of life are not to be regarded, indeed, as standing wholly out of each other in the way of external distinction; the case requires, on the contrary, that they should grow into one another with inward reciprocal embrace, and it is only their complete concretion in this way at last, as the power of a single life, that can bring the moral process to its rightful conclusion. Still they are, for the most part, as the world now stands, more or less out of each other in fact; and each has a nature also of its own, which it must always be important to understand and cultivate under such separate view. They are the four grand departments of humanity, each an organism of universal power within itself, in whose organic conjunction alone we have revealed to us the full idea of morality, as the proper life of man. Not as co-ordinate in any sense with these, but as above them all, and as constituting indeed the only form in which they can become complete, stands the idea of Religion, as fully actualized in the glorious union of the One Holy Catholic Church. In one aspect we may style such a moral whole the State. But, in a perfect state of society, this idea itself must become merged in the broader and deeper idea of the Church, in which alone we reach the final and adequate expression for our universal human life. Religion of course then stands in no opposition to any of the great divisions of this life, as they have just been named; for this would imply an original contrariety between it and the actual constitution of the world, which the nature of the case must be held to exclude. On the contrary, it must have power finally to lift them all into its own sphere. Art, science, social and civil life, must all be capable of being sanctified by its transforming presence. It belongs to the very conception of Christianity and the Church thus, that they should take full possession of the world at last, not extensively alone in its outward population, but intensively also in the entire range of its inward life and it is only in proportion as we find their actual form commensurate with the idea of such a catholicity, that this can be said to have reached, in any given stadium of their history, its true significance and design. Underneath this whole magnificent superstructure, on the other side, appears the primitive, fundamental form of society, in the constitution of the Family. As the four-fold organism of morality terminates in the idea of the Church, so it takes its start here from an organization, that may be regarded as the root of its whole the sea. cess, rising into view immediately from that holds between the individual natural the mysterious life of nature itself. The constitution, thus inward and outward, and domestic constitution stands in no way the proper personality of the subject w parallel simply with the four forms of so- whom it belongs. It lies in the very canciety that make up the union of humanity ception of personality, it is true, being a as a whole; it includes them all rather in it is the life of the spirit in the form of its single nature, in the way of beginning telligence and will, that it should not be and germ. It is the rich well-spring, out ruled blindly by the force of mere nature of which flows the river of Eden, that is as comprehended in the individual organi parted from thence into four heads, and zation. It is a principle and fountain ef carried forward with fruitful irrigation over action for itself, and is required to act back the fair garden of life, till all its streams upon the natural life with such independ become one again in the deep bosom of ent force, as may serve to mould and fashion this continually more and more in its own image. But still, this original and independent action, however free it may be in its own nature, can never escape fro the particular organization in which it has its basis, and which it is called to fill wi its presence. In other words, the inst life of man, his personal spirit, though ab solutely universal in its own character, is made to individualize itself by union with the inferior part of his nature, while si the same time it seeks to lift this into s own sphere. Reason and will according are not the same thing exactly in all a Personality is conditioned and compler ioned, all the world over, by the indivic physical nature, somatic and psychic. of which, and by means of which, it comes to its historical development. It is of possible then, of course, that it should not participate in the force of a distinction so broad and deep as that which is involved in the idea of sex. It results necessarily from the organic unity of every single lie as a whole, that the order which thes severs the human world into the two grand sections of male and female, should extend to the most spiritual part of our nature a well as to that which is simply corporeak There is a sex of the mind or soul, just there is a sex of the body; an inward di All society rests on distinction and difference. So the primary form of fellowship now mentioned, lying as it does at the ground of our universal life, is at once provided for and secured, by a radical disruption of the entire race into two great sections or halves, in the form of sex. Of all distinctions that exist in our nature, this must be held to be the most significant and profound, as entering before all others into its universal constitution, and forming the basis on the ground of which only all other relations belonging to it become possible and real. It comes into view accordingly in the first mention of man's creation; where we are told that he was made in the image and likeness of God, and at the same time under the two-fold character of male and female, as the necessary form of his perfection. His nature became complete, only when woman was taken from his side, and he was permitted to hail her bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, in the new consciousness to which he first woke by her presence. Thus radical and original in the constitution of our nature, the sexual difference must necessarily pervade, not simply a part of its being, but the whole. The life of man is indeed always a complex fact, made up of widely different forms and spheres ference of structure in the one case, inclu of existence; but it is always nevertheless, ding the whole economy of the spint, in the midst of all these, a single undivided fancy and feeling, thought and voliti, unity within itself, bound together and broadly marked and strikingly significat ruled throughout by the presence of a to say the least, as any outward difference common principle or law. The life of the of structure which may show itself in the other. resolving this difference into the influence It is altogether preposterous to think of body is ever in strict union with the life of the soul; and this, on the other hand, stands wedded again to that continually, material form. No less intimate and ne- though nothing more were needed to con as its own proper self under an outward of education or mere social position; as cessary, in the next place, is the connection vert men into women, or women into men, such union with a particular natural organization, as to have wrought into it from first to last the same particularity, as a necessary part of its own constitution. It is one of the great merits of Schleiermacher again, to have perceived and asserted, with proper force, the claims of the individual over against the authority of the universal and absolute, as a permanent element in the constitution of man. The question before us then, according to this view, is already answered. The multiplication of the race will not extend, it is true, over into the other world, and with this must come to an end also the present significance of the sexual relation as concerned in that ob so far as character and spirit are concerned, than simply to make them change places for a time in the order of society, confining the male sex to the employments of the nursery and kitchen, and throwing open to the female sex the active walks of business, politics and trade. The difference, as we may all easily see, is original and constitutional, and in this view co-extensive in full with the entire range of our common life. It shows itself in the character even of the infant, as soon as it begins to discover any signs of character whatever. The tastes and tendencies of the boyish nature are peculiar to it as such, from the first hour of its activity in the nursery, clearly distinguishing it from the nature of the girl.ject; our whole present physical state inThe distinction reigns throughout all the sports of childhood, and accompanies the entire subsequent development of the spirit, onward and upward to mature age. It prevails in full force over the whole broad range of middle life, imparting to it its highest interest and value in a moral view. Finally, it ceases not in the decay of bodily vigor and beauty, induced by old age itself, but reaches forward still, with a radiant light that grows only more mellow as it is less tinged with the coloring of sense, far down into the vale of years; covering thus in truth the universal tract of our mortal existence, from the mystery of the womb to the still more impenetrable and solemn mystery of the grave. Nor can the distinction possibly terminate here. It has been made a question indeed, whether the difference of sex extends to the other world; and it is characteristic of the Hegelian way of thinking in particular, that it allows but little room for any such supposition, having a tendency always to merge the individual in the general, and to make men mere passing exemplifications of humanity. But this view overthrows in the end the doctrine of a future state altogether; since without the distinctions of individual nature, as something continued over from the present life, there can be no sense of personal identity, no true resurrection, or other-world consciousness, in any form. It lies in the very conception of our being as we have here described it, that its individual distinctions should reach throughout the whole man in a permanent and enduring way. Personality cannot be evolved at all, except in deed being but the transient process by which our being is destined to emerge hereafter into a higher order of existence. In that higher state, we are told, they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but resemble in this respect the angels in heaven. The family constitution, in its strict sense, though it be the basis of all morality in its process of revelation, belongs only to the present order of things, and will not be continued in the complete kingdom of God. But we may not suppose, that the vast and mighty distinction in our nature, out of which this radical constitution now springs, will come to an end in the same way. Entering as it does into the life of the entire person, it cannot be overthrown by the simple elevation of our mortal individuality into the undying sphere of the spirit. On the contrary, it may be expected rather to appear now under its most purely ethical, and for that reason its highest also and richest form. In Christ Jesus, there is neither male nor female, as there is also neither Jew nor Greek; not however by the full obliteration of all such differences, but only through their free harmonious comprehension in a form of consciousness, that is deeper than their opposition, and able thus to reconcile them in an organic way. It is on the background of such universal unity precisely, that the differences stand out after all in the clearest delineation which their nature admits. There will be races and nationalities, and temperaments, strongly marked in heaven, no doubt, as we find them here in course of sanctification upon the earth. And so there will be, not in the flesh,' in the spirit, the difference of sex there too. Humanity, made forever complete in the new creation, will comprise in itself still, as the deep ground tone of its universal organic harmony, the two great forms of existence in which it was comprehended at the beginning, when God created man, we are told, male and female, after his own image. In this view, it involves no extravagance to extend the idea of sex even to the angels themselves, although they neither marry nor are given in mar riage. We are now prepared to notice more particularly, though of course still only in the most general way, the constitutional character of the two sexes in a comparative view. The case requires of course, as already intimated, a glance at the simply physical side of our nature, in the first place, and then at its moral or spiritual side in which only the first comes finally to its full human significance and force. So intimately interwoven however are these two spheres of existence, that no full view can be had of one apart from the other, and it is only in their union at last that we are enabled to complete properly the comparison we have in hand. The physical difference of the sexes is not limited by any means, in the first place, to any particular organs and functions of our simply corporeal structure, but extends to the body as a whole. This is in no sense a mechanical composition merely of various parts, outwardly fitted together, but a living whole pervaded throughout with the presence of a common principle and constitution. It is not possible, accordingly, that a peculiarity so broad and deep as that of sex should appear as something adventitious and accidental only, in some particular parts of the general organization, without affecting the rest. It must impress itself, more or less clearly, upon the whole. This we find, accordingly, to be the case in fact. Both anatomically and physiologically considered, the whole body is made to participate in the sexual character. Man and woman are so completely different in their whole organization that, as it has been remarked, no single part of the one could be properly substituted for the corresponding part of the other. Bones add muscles, the turn of the limbs, general and bulk, the conformation of the head and breast, the show of the skin, the expression of the face, the tone of the voice, the bearing and carriage of the person, all are comprehended in the same reigning universal distinction. So also in the case of the several great systems of which life is composed; the action of the liver, lungs and brain is subjected to corresponding modification. In man, the arterial and cerebral systems prevail; in woman, the venous and ganglionic; creating a preponderance of irritability in the first case, and in the second a similar preponderance of sensibility; conditioning thus throughout their different capabilities and tendencies, and indicating with sure necessity the different spheres in which they are appointed to move. In the next place, with the purely corporeal or somatic difference now stated, corresponds also the inward or psychical region of what must still be denominated our physical nature. This includes the whole natural consciousness, the product directly of our animal organization as such, which the true spirit within us is required to raise into its own native sphere of freedom, that it may become the ves ture, subsequently, of its own life. Such consciousness, from the start, is not the same thing in man that it is found to be in woman. Sensation and perception, feeling and affection, appetite and tenderey, inclination and desire, are all modified by the power of sex. The whole inward and outward nature, harmonionsly constructed in each case within itself, is comprehended in the same distinction, and carried always in the same direction. Man is characterized by superior strength and activity, while woman is more delicately tender and passive. Thought predominates in maa, in woman, taste and feeling. All goes w indicate that man is formed to exercise su thority and protection, and to wrestle both physically and spiritually with the sarrounding world; while woman is led by her whole nature, rather, to cultivate spirit of submission and dependence, nå finds her proper sphere in the retirez s of the house and family. We are in 1:5 way, however, conducted over to a s higher apprehension of the difference unit consideration. It is only as nature passes upwards, as its constitution here res it to do, into the sphere of the spare, tras the full sense and force of the dunetara thus sublimated by the ethical process is brought finally into full view. the same time participates more largely in the character of passive necessity and dependence, as the law by which nature is ruled. The personality of man is more vigorous and concentrated, and, if we may use the expression, more thoroughly and completely personal, than the personality of woman; showing him clearly thus to be the centre and bearer properly of the human nature as a whole. This implies no inferiority on the part of woman; she is just as complete and noble in her own sphere as man can possibly be in his; and this sphere is just as necessary as the other also to the true perfection of human life. It lies, however, in the nature of the case, that this life should be, not a dualism, but an inward unity; and that the distinction, therefore, in which it starts, reaching as it does into the personal consciousness itself, should be so ordered, nevertheless, as to return in upon itself again to a common personal ground. The relation of the sexes, then, requires that their two-fold constitution, dividing as it does the proper wholeness of humanity, should be supported at least as a single personality from a common basis, on one side or the other. The general nature, accordingly, is made to centre in man; and woman, taken in symbolic vision from his side, while she forms the necessary complement of his being, comes to her full spiritual development, and gains her true In this character the difference is no longer natural, simply, but in the fullest sense moral. Personality unites in itself the presence of a spiritual universal life, which is strictly and truly the fountain of its own activity in the form of intelligence and will, and a material organization as the necessary medium and basis of its revelation. In this revelation, the spirit, while it must remain always the centre of the whole person, with the power to assert its own proper primacy, is notwithstanding capable of being acted upon and influenced in very various measures by the power of nature, as brought to bear upon it through the organism of the body. In proportion, at the same time, to the independence it may be urged and enabled to assert in its own sphere, will be the strength and force of the personality thus brought into view. Now it results from the whole peculiarity of her organization, as already described, and so of course lies also in the proper purpose and destiny of her sex, that woman should possess less of this independence than man. Her life springs more immediately and directly from nature, even under its true ethical form. There is a specific difference, in this view, between the personality of the sexes, taking up into itself and completing the sense of all differences in a lower sphere. It resolves itself, ultimately, we may say, into this, that the uni-native freedom and independence, only by versal side of our common humanity prevails in man, and its individual side in Self-consciousness in man runs readily into the general form of thought, disposing him for comprehensive observation, speculation and science: in woman, it takes more the character of feeling, which is always something single, closely coupled with fancy and art; her thoughts are her own inward states and impressions mainly, and the product immediately of the outward occasions from which they grow. again self-activity in man takes naturally the broad character of will, carrying him forth into the open world, involving him in business and conflict on the arena of public life; while with woman it is exercised more in the form of impulse and desire, falls more fully within the flow of nature as embodied in her own particular organization, and for this very reason at woman. seeking in him the central support which she lacks in herself, and bringing her whole consciousness thus into profound union with his life, as the inmost and deepest ground of her own. With such natural and personal difference, the sexes are designated from the start to different spheres of life, and have widely different missions to fulfil in the social system. Neither the duties of the man, on the one hand, nor his virtues and perSo fections on the other, are the same in general that belong to woman; and so also the vices which most dishonor the one are not always of parallel turpitude for the other. Man's vocation is to go forth into the world, to wrestle with nature as its rightful lord and master, to make his understanding and will felt on the general course of life. The forest-felling axe, the soil-subduing plough, the mason's hammer and the joiner's sew. |