EDITOR'S TABLE. 



4*5 



processes of gestation and lactation. 

 But will progress, under such heroic in- 

 terpretation, leave even this shred of 

 a domestic sphere? Is not the stirpi- 

 culturist abroad with his lamentations 

 over the evils of the unregulated multi- 

 plication of human beings, and is he not 

 predicting the time when human perfec- 

 tion shall be attained through the total 

 disappearance of present domestic rela- 

 tions, and their better discharge under 

 the control of outside organization? 

 Dr. Blackwell declares that the per- 

 sonal relations in the family are "a 

 fixed and constant element"; what is 

 her warrant for the declaration in the 

 light of the slow-working progress 

 she invokes. 



Dr. Blackwell's argument rigidly 

 carried out would sweep the family and 

 the home out of existence, and merge 

 it in the outside life of society, where 

 all regulation falls within the province 

 of the state. Her reasoning goes to the 

 most chimerical lengths through a fail- 

 ure to recognize that there is a perma- 

 nent sphere of legitimate distinctive 

 womanly work. Her affirmations that 

 "there is no one kind of work which 

 absolutely belongs to domestic life," 

 and that "there is no necessary con- 

 nection between domestic life and do- 

 mestic work " can not for a moment be 

 accepted as true. They are no more true 

 than would be the proposition that there 

 is no necessary connection between life 

 and work at all. There are plenty of 

 people who live and never work, but it 

 remains true that human life is inex- 

 orably conditioned upon work. There 

 are women who never do domestic work, 

 who abandon the home, and live in ho- 

 tels; but it is still true that domestic 

 work is a condition and necessity of 

 home-life sotrue that, if domestic work 

 disappears, the home is impossible. If 

 there is a house, there must be house- 

 keeping ; if there are children, they must 

 be.. '3d for; if there are invalids, they 

 must be nursed; if there is food, it must 

 be prepared, and all these things involve 



work as a simple practical necessity. Be- 

 cause there has been a great deal of for- 

 eign and unfeminine work carried on in 

 the household is no reason for asserting 

 that there is no such thing as proper 

 feminine domestic work. The home 

 has, of course, been burdened by these 

 industries, and women made drudges to 

 them, and we all bid Godspeed to their 

 exodus. But for what reason ? That 

 woman may be released from exhaust- 

 ing, unfeminine occupations, togi ve more 

 strength to the proper performance of 

 her legitimate duties as wife, mother, 

 and household administrator. Weaving, 

 cheese-making, and domestic manufac- 

 tures stand in no relation to the essen- 

 tial nature and characteristic duties of 

 woman. Such occupations have robbed 

 her of leisure for self-improvement, and 

 want of suitable culture has hitherto pre- 

 vented the mass of women from proper- 

 ly performing the duties which lie in the 

 very heart of home. Every step of prog- 

 ress from the primitive state to the pres- 

 ent has been in the direction of woman's 

 emancipation from the hardships of 

 physical labor, and coincident with this 

 relief there has been an improvement in 

 her nature, the gentler virtues appear 

 and the finer qualities of the feminine 

 mind are developed. But the ideal of 

 womanhood toward which such con- 

 siderable progress has been made is not 

 the fine lady, idle of hand and brain, 

 the gadding and gossiping woman of 

 leisure and society, who evades or dis- 

 charges with wretched incompetence 

 the cares and responsibilities of domes- 

 tic life. Womanly talent and cultiva- 

 tion are demanded in the line of strictly 

 feminine occupations, that the home 

 shall become more and more instead of 

 less and less in the social life of the fu- 

 ture. 



We have no space here even to enu- 

 merate the varied forms of womanly 

 activity involved in the home, when all 

 its extrinsic burdens are removed. That 

 which progress must bring us is not 

 exemption from them, but their more 



