Year: 1877




Speaking broadly, says the Lon
don World, there are only two
sorts of women whom the general
ity of men positively like = those
who are honestly fools, end those
who, though very far from being
so, have the talent to assume the
role. There is'a comfortable belief
securely lodged in the masculine
brain, that vanity is an exclusively
feminine attribute ; and it would
be difficult to persuade them of
what is nevertheless "a positive
tact, that for touchy and sensitive
vanity and self.conceit no woman
was ever a match for the ordinary
male tits not chiefly his appear
ance upon which he prides himself,
but his superior intellect, and, the
less of that valuable commodity he
possesses, the more edifying and
impressively supercilious does he
become on the subject of woman's
minds. In truth there is nothing
he SO dislikes as a woman with a
shadow Of reasoning power; and
those estimable persons who are
laboring so hard in the cause Of
what they term the "higher educa-
tion of woman" may be useful to
those whe cannot or will not marry
but are doing all in their power to
render homes miserable, husbands
sulky, and wives discontcnted
There never was a greater fallacy
on this earth than to suppose thai
the average man wishes for a wife
as an intellectual companion; he
only requires her to say, sop
" "Ah!" admiringly at intervals
and accord him the unreasonine
homage unaccountably denied hin
by his fellow-men. iu


The average man resents a word
implying his wife's divergence from
his views except in household mat
ters, which he calls contemptuously
"woman's province" and which
warned by the disastrous results
produced by his occasional attempts
at interference, he wisely leaves tC
her administration. He meets hel
mild representation, that she car
not help having an opinion, with q
sneer that "of course she goes il
for woman's rights and wants tC
vote;" which, being a sensible wo.
man, is about the last thing she
would desire; and she probably fails
to see why such an accusation
should arise from her gentle diver.
gence of opinion on the ultimate
designs of Russia. She is quit
aware that she has read and thought
a great deal more on the subject
than her husband has, and his I'M
perative command to "hold hel
tongue and not be foolish" fails t
secure complete obedience. She
feels aggrieved and discontented
and inclined to wish herself an
utter fool like pretty Mrs. Feather
brain, who does not know that two
and two makes four. She endeav
ors not to express an opinion, bu


her silence is protest which
wounds her husbands aggressiv,
vanity-he has an uneasy con
seriousness, which he would not al
low torture to make him confess


that she is cleVerer than he is, ant
he hates her for the superiority
and snubs her to relieve himself O


the feeling Of it.


But matters are not greatly i'm
proved if the wife is not an intellec
tual, but a sensible, honest, anC
straightforward woman. She love
her husband dearly, gives up he
| pleasure and her comforts for hi
without q murmur, denies hersel


any little indulgence if itin any wa
Iinterferes with his slightest whim
and keeps silence when none,


which should be spent on the hous


or on her comfort is squandered o.
his selfish amusements, But she j


honest, and cannot say that sh


thinks a thing either wise or de


sirable when it appears to her dis


tinctly the reverse; ; and loving he
husband with all her heart, an
| II L i 81. 4. 4 g..