her uniform willingness
to further the idea of sexual union.

 

Any definition of the nature of woman which goes no further than to
declare that she has the strong instinct for her own union would be too
narrow; any definition that would link her instincts to the child or to
the husband, or to both, would be too wide. The most general and
comprehensive statement of the nature of woman is that it is completely
adapted and disposed for the special mission of aiding and abetting the
bodily union of the sexes. All women are matchmakers, and this property
of the woman to be the advocate of the idea of pairing is the only one
which is found in women of all ages, in young girls, in adults, and in
the aged. The old woman is no longer interested in her own union, but
she devotes herself to the pairing of others. This habit of the old
woman is nothing new, it is only the continuance of her enduring
instinct surviving the complications that were caused when her personal
interests came into conflict with her general desire; it is the now
unselfish pursuit of the impersonal idea. . . .

 

The effort of woman