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MAN AND WOMAN
by Victor Hugo
Man is the most elevated of creatures,
Woman the most sublime of ideals. God made for man a throne; for Woman an altar. The throne exalts; the altar sanctifies. Man is the brain; Woman, the heart. The brain creates light; the heart, love. Light engenders; love resurrects. Because of reason Man is strong. Because of tears Woman is invincible. Reason is convincing; tears, moving. Man is capable of all heroism. Woman of all martyrdom. Heroism ennobles; martyrdom sublimates. Man has supremacy; Woman, preference. Supremacy is strength. Preference is the right. Man is a genius; Woman, an angel. Genius is immeasurable; the angel indefinable. The aspiration of man is supreme glory. The aspiration of woman is extreme virtue. Glory creates all that is great; virtue, all that is divine. Man is a code; Woman a gospel. A code corrects; the gospel perfects. Man thinks; Woman dreams. To think is to have a worm in the brain. To dream is to have a halo on the brow. Man is an ocean, Woman a lake. The ocean has the adorning pearl; the lake,
dazzling poetry.
Man is the flying eagle; Woman, the singing nightingale. To fly is to conquer space; to sing is to conquer the soul. Man is a temple; Woman a shrine. Before the temple we discover ourselves;
before the shrine we kneel.
In short, man is found where earth finishes,
woman where heaven begins.
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