Joint Contention. 223 



thought, and keep her mind too exclusively intent upon imme- 

 diate household duties, and the welfare of those she is by the 

 ties of nature interested in. Her daily habit of thinking and 

 planning for the family, of which she is maternal head, ulti- 

 mately dwarfs her capacity for thought and conversation, and 

 the constant dwelling upon the minutiae of daily duties causes 

 her to turn mole-hills of little nothings into mountains of trials, 

 and in many cases to become exceedingly prolix in the common 

 daily affairs, in which few feel but little interest. 



The husband's vocation, let it be what it may, calls him out in 

 the world. He has a greater or less chance for mingling with 

 his fellow beings. The daily manifold suggestions quicken 

 thought, the constant friction of other minds brightens and de- 

 velops the power of intellect, and the exigencies of business 

 draw him out in competition, which is daily educating him, 

 while the wife, to be a dutiful wife and mother, a model house- 

 keeper, and a good economist, has so little opportunity for change 

 and interchange of thoughts and ideas. She must, to a certain 

 extent, bring her mind down to the monotonous routine of 

 housework. There are days, and perhaps weeks, she sees only 

 those of her own family; her time is so fully occupied with her 

 manifold duties, she scarcely finds time for reading. The result 

 is she is fast losing ground as a companion to her husband and 

 an educator to her children. To be really entertaining and com- 

 panionable to her husband, her theme of conversation must take 

 a broader range than her kitchen or nursery, and it must not 

 consist of neighborhood gossip. His mental out-reach stretches 

 far beyond these themes. It takes in all the themes of discus- 

 sion that require a keen, shrewd and active mind, and she must 

 be able to converse fluently upon the current topics of the day, 

 and to discuss freely the political world, in order to entertain 

 him to his own satisfaction; otherwise her conversation grows 

 wearisome, and is estimated as meaningless prattle. 



The mental abilities of the wife and mother are usually un- 

 derrated by the " sterner sex." He believes her mind to be nar- 

 rower than his and less able for ample scope for thought, for the 

 simple reason that her domestic duties give her so little oppor- 



