88 University of Texas Bulletin
holds absolute sway. Worshipfully man approaches her as a suitor. Worshipfully, for so does every suitor, it is not the scheme of a crafty deceiver. Even the executioner, when laying down his fasces to go a-wooing, even he bends his knee, although he is willing to offer himself up, within a short time, to domestic executions which he finds so nat- ural that he is far from seeking any excuse for them in the fact that public executions have grown so few. The cul- tured person behaves in the very same manner. He kneels, he worships, he conceives his lady-love in the most fan- tastic categories ; and then he very quickly forgets his kneel- ing position — in fact, he knew full well the while he knelt that it was fantastic to do so.
If I were a woman I would prefer to be sold by my father to the highest bidder, as is the custom in the Orient; for there is at least some sense in such a deal. What misfor- tune to have been born a woman! Yet her misfortune really consists in her not being able to comprehend it, being a woman. If she does complain, she complains rather about her Oriental, than her Occidental, status. But if I were a woman I would first of all refuse to be wooed, and resign myself to belong to the weaker sex, if such is the case, and be careful — which is most important if one is proud — of not going beyond the truth. However, that is of but little con- cern to her. Juliana is in the seventh heaven, and Mrs. Peterson submits to her fate.
Let me, then, thank the gods that I was born a man and not a woman. And still, how much do I forego! For is not all poetry, from the drinking song to the tragedy, a deification of woman? All the worse for her and for him who admires her ; for if he does not look out he will, all of a sudden, have to pull a long face. The beautiful, the ex- cellent, all of man's achievement, owes its origin to woman, for she inspires him. Woman is, indeed, the inspiring ele- ment in life. How many a love-lorn shepherd has played on this theme, and how many a shepherdess has listened to it! Verily, my soul is without envy and feels only gratitude to the gods ; for I would rather be a man, though in humble station, but really so, than be a woman and an indeter-