THE POWER OF WOMAN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7986, 15 March 1906, Page 7

THE POWER OF WOMAN.

HOW SHE HAS MOULDED HISTORY. Woman has a cold, impartial critic in Dr. Emil Riicu. In the January number of tho Grand Magazine ho supplements the opinions he expressed at a lecture which he delivorecl recently. "Women in History," is tho title of tne article he contributes to the magazine. He has no iutoutiou he commences, coustioally, of discussing the "new woman," who is "neither new nor a woman—and 1 hate her." "Nations differ in nothing more than in theiv women." saysDr Reich and turning to the subject of American women he becomes exceedingly bitter. "I would like to state that I have not the slightest intention of being disagreeable. Ido not blame, 1 do not praise; I only say, and I say it emphatically, that the Amerioan woman ia not womanly; she is not a woman. MADE UP OP RESTLESSNESS. "In America woman commands man.-; Man does not count there. She lives so that she can have a good time; she lives lor sensation. . . . She wants to bb alone, and she cannot be alone without dabbling to-day with chemistry, to-morrow with physiology, and the day after with Buddhism. ... She is made up of restlessness and fidgetiness long before she is twenty-five. But she is very beautiful; she has tho best complexion in the world—better than that of any European woman." The French woman has intense energy, says Dr Reich. She does not understand false positions, and she is impatient of them. "In England, on the other hand, everything is sacrificed to false positions."^ LOVE IN HISTORY. "In Germany they think their greatest character is Woman. There they have everything in perfect or-der-their army, their navy, their education; but the woman is the canker in Prussian life. And it is through woman that Prussia will go to rack and ruin. "The greatest heroes were madly fond ot women. What lam going to eayg may. perhaps shock some squeamish readers. But it is the truth. The English are very proud of Nelson and of Trafalgar, and rightly so; but there would have been no Trafalgar had there been no Lady Hamilton. It was Nelson's love for his Emma that made him fight as he did at Trafalgar. It was his Jove for Emma that put into him the ardour which brought out that 1 impressive patriotism. « "Women do not love Napoleon; they love the mere middle-class mediocrities rather. And yet Na-, poleon loved them, and it was love which induced him to do the great deeds he d'd.

BRITISH WOMEN COLD. "British women are too cold to take their rightful place, to perform their proper part in the inspiration of heroes. "If anything great should ever come to Ireland it will be through their women. "The Russian women will discourse on everything; she knows fifteen languages; but she is no woman. "Why doos the English woman not take a leaf out of the French, out of the Irish book? Why does she not combine some features of both, and become a little more active, a little more influential? Let her keep her boy with her till he is fourteen or fifteen, and not send him away to a public school at ten; keep him under her maternal influence, in the home atmosphere; lavish more love, more kisses ou him, and try to make a hero of him. Let he** not be afraid of making- tnem effeminate. "Love is the goddess that rules the heart and the head; and it is woman that gives the keynote to everything. No man can ever be a really great man unless a woman's influence was , shed on his youth. Great men imply great mothers and great wives, such as it should be the ambition of every woman w.bo aspires to the title of 'new' to become."