616 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



on his mother's side were also carpenters, would be sure to. This case 

 never occurs. Masculine specialties are numerous. Male ancestors are 

 also numerous. Their specialties are not one, but many. Now, if it 

 happens that one of these ancestors had a specialty particularly adapted 

 to transmission, which had become a part of his nature before his 

 children were born, his posterity may have inherited his special apti- 

 tude regardless of the occupations of their immediate male parents. 

 But, of course, it would all the time be diluted by its mixture with 

 aptitudes inherited through other strains. 



In the case of woman, every circumstance conspires to make the 

 special aptitude intensely hereditary. It is acquired before the birth of 

 children, hence is always transmitted. It has been transmitted, undi- 

 luted, from the female side, through countless generations. In a cer- 

 tain sense woman inherits masculine aptitudes from her male ancestors, 

 But almost her only use of them is to transmit them to her sons. 



In a few cases they are so strong that she yields to them and util- 

 izes them ; and a part of her reward is that she is pointed to as an 

 example that if women had the chance they would prove as capable 

 as men. As a rule, girls inherit the industrial tendencies of their 

 female rather than of their male ancestors, just as they do their voices, 

 faces, and forms. 



It is not worth while to quarrel with this fact, nor to quarrel about 

 its original cause. It must be taken account of. From an unbroken 

 line the woman inherits adaptation to a single specialty. From con- 

 verging lines running back to a great variety of specialties the man 

 inherits the capacity to turn his hand to many things, and measurably 

 succeed in any one of quite a number. Woman has a "sphere," while 

 man has spheres. How to bring about equality, or something more 

 nearly approaching it, in this respect the multiplicity of " spheres " 

 is the base of all there is in the famous " woman question." For, 

 the moment woman has industrial potency, her way is clear to the 

 realization of most of her other aspirations. 



As compared with woman, man inherits versatility. But not all 

 men are equal in this respect. Some inherit a larger assortment of 

 capabilities than others, and with them the courage to abandon an 

 adopted specialty the moment it becomes unprofitable or otherwise 

 disagreeable, and take up another. Some whole communities have 

 been so long tied to a single narrow industry that their inhabitants 

 can hardly be trained to anything else. If that one industry for any 

 reason ceases to be profitable, carried on in their way, they are com- 

 paratively helpless. 



Grant that it is not good for a man to "have too many irons in the 

 fire," or be " Jack of all trades and master of none " ; neither is it 

 good for him to " carry all his eggs in one basket," or " have only one 

 string to his bow." The man who is tolerably capable at several 

 kinds of work is the better able to make his living while he is seeking 



