218、⑼女人的聪明本质上是谦逊、优雅、平和、顺从、轻柔、温和；而男人的聪明本质上是严肃、粗鲁、硬朗、勇猛、放纵。这就是女人的本性和男人的本性，这一点从两性的身体、面孔、嗓音、言语、行为、举止明显看出来。从身体来看，男人的皮肉结实，女人的皮肉柔软；男人的面孔更生硬、坚毅、粗犷，面色深暗，还有胡须，因而不怎么漂亮；而女人的面孔则更柔嫩、光滑、细腻、白晰，因而更漂亮；从嗓音来看，男人的嗓音低沉，女人的嗓音轻柔；男人的言语放荡不羁，女人的言语谦逊平和；从行为来看，男人的行为更果断、坚定，女人的行为更虚弱、无力；从举止来看，男人的举止更洒脱，女人的举止更优雅。
我通过男孩、女孩聚在一起时的行为举止就能清楚看出男人和女人与生俱来的性格差异。在一座大城市，我有几次透过窗户，看到街上每天有二十多个孩子聚在一起。男孩子顺着自己的性子，一起玩耍时大吵大闹、叫嚷，打架斗殴，互相扔石头。而女孩子安安静静地坐在家门口，有的逗弄小婴儿，有的打扮布娃娃，有的在绣亚麻布，有的互相亲吻。我惊讶地发现，尽管男孩们有这样的行为，但女孩们仍友善地看着他们。我由此清楚看出，男人生来是理解，女人生来是爱。我还能看出，理解和爱起初是何性质，并因此明白，男人的理解若不与女性的爱联结，后来则与婚姻之爱联结，将发展成什么样。
218、（9）女人的才智的本性是谦逊，高雅、平和、温柔的，而男人才智的本性是批判性的，粗旷的，有抗拒性的，爱争辩的，缺乏忍耐性的。
这一点可在男人和女人的躯体，面孔、声音、言语、忍耐性及行为上看到。
从躯体上讲，男人的身体更坚硬，女人的则更柔软，男人的面孔更生硬，粗矿，面色更黑而且有胡须。而女性的面孔则更温柔，肤色白晰，更漂亮。男人的声音更生硬，女人的则更柔和。男人的言语充满争辩性，而女人的言语则更平和。在耐性上讲男人勇猛女人则温和精细，在行为上看，男人更大胆，女人则仔细。
男女性格上的差别在出生时就是这样，通过成群男孩和女孩我更清楚地看到这点。有好多次我从窗户看出去，会见到二十多个男孩女孩在下面聚集。男孩子在玩时大声喊叫，互相打斗。而女孩们则坐在门前的台阶上与小孩玩，或者做着手工活，或吻对方一下，并且友好地看着男孩们，由此我可以看到男人生来是才智的形式而女人生来是爱的形式，并且我能看到才智和爱的本性是怎样的。并且我看到若没有女人的爱以及进而而来的婚姻之爱，男人的才智将发展成什么样。
218. (ix) The intelligence of women is in essence modest, refined, peaceful, yielding, gentle and tender; but that of men is in essence serious, harsh, hard, spirited and disposed to licence.
It is plainly to be seen that women have the traits here ascribed to them, and men those ascribed here to them, from a consideration of each sex as regards their bodies, faces, voices, speech, gestures and behaviour. The body shows that men have hard skin and flesh, but women soft. The face of men is harder, more determined, rougher, deeper coloured, even bearded, and so less beautiful; women's faces are softer, more yielding, more tender and whiter, so these are its beauties. Men have voices that are deep, women light. Men's speech is fond of licence and spirited, women's modest and peaceful. Men's gestures are bolder and stronger, women's weaker and feebler. Men's behaviour is less restrained, women's more elegant.
[2] I was able clearly to see the innate difference of character between men and women by observing how boys and girls behaved when they got together, a sight I have several times seen from a window in a large city overlooking a street, where twenty or more children gathered every day. The boys, in keeping with their innate character, played together making a noise, shouting, fighting, beating and throwing stones at one another. But the girls sat quietly by the doors of their houses, some playing with babies, some dressing up dolls, some embroidering on small pieces of linen, some kissing one another. I was surprised to see that the girls still looked favourably on the boys, for all their behaviour. This experience allowed me to see plainly that a man is by birth an intellect, a woman a love, and what kind of intellect and what kind of love they are in their beginnings. So I could see what a man's intellect would be like, if it developed without being linked with feminine love, and later with conjugial love.
218. 9. The intelligence of women is by nature modest, gracious, peaceable, compliant, soft and gentle, while the intelligence of men is by nature critical, rough, resistant, argumentative, and given to intemperance. Evidence that this is the nature of women and the nature of men is clearly apparent from the body, face, tone of voice, speech, bearing and behavior of each sex.
With respect to the body, men are firm in skin and flesh, while women are soft. With respect to the face, men's are harder, more defiant, rougher, darker in color, also whiskered, thus less beautiful, whereas women's are softer, more compliant, gentler, lighter in color, and so pictures of beauty. With respect to tone of voice, men have a stern one, while women have a gentle one. With respect to their speech, men's is given to intemperance and argumentativeness, while women's is modest and peaceable. With respect to their bearing, men's is bolder and more forceful, whereas women's is meeker and more delicate. With respect to their behavior, men's is more unruly, while women's is more civilized.
[2] The nature of men and the nature of women are different even from the time they are born, and it became clearly apparent to me how much they differ from seeing boys and girls together in groups. Several times in a great city I looked through my window and saw gatherings of them on the street, where over twenty of them would congregate every day. There the boys would play together in accordance with the temperament inborn in them - raising a commotion, shouting, fighting, striking blows, throwing stones at each other. In contrast, the girls would sit peacefully at the doors of the houses, some playing with little children, some dressing dolls, some sewing on bits of linen, some giving each other kisses. And yet I was surprised to see that they regarded the boys the way they were with friendly eyes.
From this I could clearly see that a man is born a form of the intellect, and a woman a form of love. I could also see what the nature of the intellect is and what the nature of love is in their beginnings, and thus what a man's intellect in its development would be like without conjunction with feminine love and eventually conjugial love.
218. 9. In its own right, women's intelligence is modest, tasteful, peaceable, yielding, pliant, and tender, but men's intelligence in its own right is heavy, rough, hard, bold, and liberty loving. We can readily see that men and women are like that, from their bodies, faces, voices, speech, bearing, and behavior. The body shows that men have hard skin and flesh, but women soft. The face shows that men are sterner, more resolute, rougher, more tawny, and bearded, therefore less beautiful. But women are softer, more yielding, more tender, fairer, and therefore beautiful. The voice shows that men have a low one but women a high one. Speech shows that in men speech is bold and spirited, but in women modest and peaceable.
Bearing shows that men's is stronger and firmer but women's is not so strong and less vigorous. Behavior shows that men's is more extreme but women's is more tasteful.
I have seen clearly how much the disposition of men differs from that of women right from birth, from watching boys and girls in groups. I have often seen them through a window in a large city, overlooking a street where twenty or more of them gathered every day. The boys there, following their inborn nature, played together making a commotion, shouting, wrestling, punching and throwing stones at one another. But the girls sat quietly by the doors of the houses, some playing with babies, some dressing dolls, some sewing little pieces of linen, some kissing each other. What surprised me was that they kept looking with pleased expressions at the boys who were behaving that way.
I could see clearly from these things that a man is born intellect and a woman love, and I could see what intellect is like in its early stages and what love is like in its. And in this way I could see what a man's intellect would be like if it developed without joining together with feminine love, and later married love.
218. IX. THAT IN ITSELF THE INTELLIGENCE OF WOMEN IS MODEST, ELEGANT, PACIFIC, YIELDING, GENTLE, TENDER; AND THE INTELLIGENCE OF MEN IN ITSELF IS GRAVE, HARSH, HARD, SPIRITED, FOND OF LICENSE. That such is the nature of women and such the nature of men, is very manifest from the body, face, voice, speech, bearing, and manners of each. From their BODY, in that with men the skin and flesh are hard, but with women soft. From their FACE, in that with men it is harder, more resolute, rougher, darker, also bearded, thus less beautiful, and with women, softer, more yielding and tender, fairer and hence more beautiful. 1From their VOICE, in that with men it is hard but with women soft. From their SPEECH, in that with men it is fond of license and bold but with women modest and pacific. From their BEARING, in that with men it is more vigorous and firmer and with women less vigorous and weaker. From their MANNERS, in that with men they are more unrestrained, with women more elegant.
[2] How greatly, from their very birth, the genius of men differs from that of women was made clearly manifest to me from seeing gatherings of boys and girls. In a great city, looking through my window, I have several times seen them in the street where more than twenty were gathered together every day. There the boys, following their connate disposition, played together by making a great noise, shouting, fighting, striking blows, and throwing stones at each other; while the girls sat quietly at the doors of the houses, some playing with infants, some dressing dolls, some embroidering pieces of linen, some kissing each other and, what astonished me, they yet watched the boys just as they were, with pleased looks. From this I could clearly see that man is born understanding and woman love. I could also see the nature of understanding and love in their beginnings; and thus, what the understanding of man would be in its progression without conjunction with feminine and later with conjugial love.
Footnotes:
1. The text has et inde pulchritudines, but the et inde shows that this is an error for pulchriore (as in the translation), in apposition to the preceding impulchriore.
218. (ix) The intelligence of women in itself is modest, refined, pacific, yielding, gentle, and tender; and the intelligence of men in itself is serious, rough, hard, spirited, license-loving. That women and men are such is manifest from body, face, voice, speech, bearing and ways. From the body: men are hard in skin and flesh, but women soft. From the face: men are harder, sterner, rougher, darker, also bearded, thus less handsome, but women of a softer countenance, more yielding, tender, fair, and hence are beauties. From the voice: men have heavy voices, but women light. From the speech: men are license-loving and aggressive, but women modest and pacific. From the bearing: in men it is bolder and more assured, but in women more timid and shrinking. From the ways: with men these are less restrained, but more refined with women.
[2] How much the nature of men differs from the nature of women even from birth was obvious to me from some groups of boys and girls I once saw. I watched them at times from my window, in a great city square where more than twenty gathered daily. The boys played together in keeping with the disposition born in them, tumbling, shouting, fighting, striking and throwing stones at one another; but the girls sat quietly in the housedoors, some of them playing with babies, some dressing dolls, some embroidering small pieces of linen, some kissing each other; and what I wondered at, they watched those noisy boys with pleased looks. From this it was plain to see that man is born understanding, and woman love; also what understanding and love are like at first; furthermore, what the understanding would be like as it advanced if it was not united with feminine love and finally with marital love.
218. (9) That the intelligence of women is in itself unassuming, refined, peaceful, yielding, gentle, and tender; and the intelligence of men is in itself grave, harsh, hard, daring, fond of unrestrained liberty. That women are such, and such are men, is very manifest from the body, the face, the voice, speech, action and manners of each. From their body: In that with men the skin and the flesh are hard, but with women soft. From their face: In that men are sterner, more resolute, rougher, more tawny, also bearded, thus less beautiful; and women are softer, more yielding, tender, fair, and hence are beauties. From their voice: In that with men it is grave, but with women tender. From their speech: In that with men it is fond of unrestraint and bold, but with women modest and pacific. From their gesture: In that with men this is stronger and firmer, and with women weaker and more feeble. From their manners: In that with men they are more unconstrained, with women more elegant.
How much, from very birth, the genius of men differs from that of women has been made very manifest to me by the sight of boys and girls in their gatherings. Several times from my window have I observed them, in an open place in a great city, where more than twenty came together every day. The boys, according to their connate disposition, played together by making a great noise, shouting, fighting, beating, and throwing stones at each other; while the girls sat quietly at the doors of the houses, some playing with infants, some dressing their dolls, some piecing together bits of linen, some kissing each other. And, what, astonished me, they yet looked with pleased eyes upon the boys who were so boisterous. From these manifestations I could clearly see that man is born understanding and woman love; and could see what understanding is, and what love is, in their beginnings; and thus what the understanding of man in its progression would be without conjunction with the feminine and afterwards with conjugial love.
218. IX: Quod Intelligentia foeminarum in se sit modesta, elegans, pacifica, cedens, mollis, tenera; et quod Intelligentia virorum in se sit gravis, aspera, dura, animosa, licentiae amans. Quod tales sint foeminae, et tales sint viri, patet manifeste ex utriusque corpore, facie, sono, loquela, gestu, et moribus; ex Corpore, quod viri sint duri cute et carne, foeminae autem molli: ex Facie, quod viri sint duriore, obnixiore, asperiore, flaviore, etiam barbata, ita impulchriore, 1foeminae autem molliore, cedentiore, teneriore, candidiore, et inde pulchritudines: ex Sono, quod viris sit gravis, foeminis autem tener: ex Loquela, quod viris sit licentiae amans et animosa, foeminis autem modesta et pacifica: ex Gestu, quod viris sit fortior et firmior, foeminis autem invalidior et imbecillior: ex Moribus, quod viris sint immoderatiores, foeminis autem elegantiores.
[2] Quantum ab ipsa nativitate differt genius virorum a genio foeminarum, patuit mihi clare a visis pueris et puellis in congregationibus; vidi has aliquoties per fenestram in magna Urbe super platea, in qua ultra viginti quovis die se congregabant; ibi Pueri secundum indolem sibi connatam colludebant tumultuando, vociferando, pugnando, verberando, projiciendo lapides in alteros: at Puellae ad januas domuum sedebant pacificae, quaedam ludentes cum infantibus, quaedam amicientes pupas, quaedam nentes super frustulis lineis, quaedam se osculantes; et quod miratus sum, usque amaenis oculis aspectabant pueros, qui tales. Ex his manifeste videre potui, quod vir nascatur intellectus, ac foemina amor; et qualis est intellectus, et qualis est amor in suis principiis; et sic qualis foret intellectus viri in progressu absque conjunctione cum amore foeminino, et dein conjugiali.
Footnotes:
1. Prima editio: impulchriore;