88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



evince a singular inability to appreciate the real dangers now beset- 

 ting the institution. It is true, no doubt, that every new subject of 

 common interest for husband and wife must, from the nature of the 

 case, constitute also a new possible occasion for disagreement ; but, if 

 this is to be accounted a good reason for excluding women from poli- 

 tics, they might with equal justice be excluded from literature, from 

 the fine arts, from every thing in which men also take an interest 

 above all, from religion. The value of these several pursuits as bonds 

 and cements of married life is just in proportion to the degree of com- 

 mon interest which husbands and wives take in them, and just in the 

 same proportion also is the possible danger that they may become the 

 grounds of dissension. Mr. Smith is greatly scandalized at the pros- 

 pect of a man .and his wife taking opposite sides in politics. I cannot 

 see that it would be at all more scandalous than that a man and his 

 wife should take opposite sides in religion going, for example, every 

 Sunday to different places of worship, where each hears the creed of 

 the other denounced as soul-destroying and damnable. It will serve 

 to throw light upon the present problem if we consider for a moment 

 how it happens that this latter spectacle is on the whole so rarely 

 presented, and that, even where the event occurs, it is so frequently 

 found consistent with tolerable harmony in married life. The explana- 

 tion, I have no doubt, is of this kind : where difference of religion con- 

 sists with matrimonial happiness, it will generally be found that one 

 or both of the partners do not take a very deep interest in the creeds 

 they profess; while, on the other hand, where people do feel strongly 

 on religion, they generally take care, in forming matrimonial alliances, 

 to consort with those who, on fundamental points, are of the same 

 opinion with themselves. Now, it seems to me that this may serve to 

 illustrate for us what will be the practical working of politics in re- 

 spect to married life when women begin to receive a political educa- 

 tion, or at least to learn as much about politics, and take as much or 

 as little interest in them, as men do. A number only too large of men 

 and women will probably continue for long enough to take but small 

 interest in public affairs, and these will marry, as they do now, with 

 little reference to each other's political opinions ; but the danger of 

 discord from politics under such circumstances would be infinitesimal. 

 The only cases in which this danger would become serious would be 

 when both husband and wife were strong politicians. Here, no doubt, 

 there would be danger; though no greater, I think, than when two 

 persons of strong but opposite religious convictions enter into mar- 

 riage. Mr. Smith seems to think that, because " religion is an affair 

 of the other world," it is less likely than politics to be an occasion of 

 strife. This is probable enough when people do not believe in another 

 world ; but when they do, and believe also that the fate of people 

 there will depend on what they believe in this, I cannot see the wis- 

 dom of his remark. Some of the worst and crudest wars that have 



