Others, following a bent gotten along with coquetry in connection
with the wooing instinct, and having no activity through which their
behavior is standardized, become difficile, unreal, inefficient,
exacting, unsatisfied, absurd. And we have also the paradox that
the same woman can be the two things at different times. There is
therefore a basis of truth in Pope's hard saying that "Women have no
characters at all." Because their problem is not to accommodate to the
solid realities of the world of experience and sense, but to adjust
themselves to the personality of men, it is not surprising that they
should assume protean shapes.
Moreover, man is so affected by the charms of woman, and offers so
easy a mark for her machinations, as to invite exploitation. Having
been evolved largely through the stimulus of the female presence, he
continues to be more profoundly affected by her presence and behavior
than by any other stimulus whatever, unless it be the various forms of
combat. From Samson and Odysseus down, history and story recognize
the ease and frequency with which a woman makes a fool of a man.
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