Impressions and comments / Havelock Ellis.

  • Ellis, Havelock, 1859-1939.
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Impressions and comments / Havelock Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    218 IMPRESSIONS AND COMMENTS that it is equally useless in the moral sphere. Yet in the moral world also Imperfection is essential to beauty and desire. What we are pleased to consider Perfection of character is perhaps easier to attain than Perfection of body. But, not on that account alone, it is equally unattractive. The woman who seems a combination of unalloyed virtues is as in¬ adequate as the woman who is a combination of smooth physical perfections. In the moral world, indeed, the desired Imperfection needs to be dynamic and shifting rather than static and fixed, because virtues are contradictory. Modesty and Courage, for instance, do not sort weU together at the same moment. Men have rhapsodied much on the modesty of woman, but a woman who was always modest would be as insipid as a woman who was always courageous would be repellent. An incalcu¬ lable and dynamic combination of Shyness and Daring is at the core of a woman's fascination. And the same relationship binds the more mas¬ culine combination of Justice and Generosity. Why should we pretend any more that the world is on the road to Perfection ? Or that we want it to be ? The world is in j>erpetual oscillation. Let us be thankful for every inspiring revelation of a New Imperfection.