' MAINE STATE SOCIETY. 45 



If the neglect of the soil, so much regretted by all well wishers 

 to national prosperity, is attributable to the hard work of the farm- 

 er's in-door life, then let reform in that direction be attempted. 

 Had man himself been the immediate sufferer from the present awk- 

 ward system, or rather no system, of domestic labor, the reform 

 would have been attempted and achieved long ago; — but woman, if 

 not by constitutional habit, inclined to endure evils patiently, rather 

 than struggle bravely for their removal, is trained to do so, by all 

 the books she reads, and all the sermons she hears preached. Pe- 

 culiarly susceptible as woman is, to religious influence, she has 

 seemed to receive from Christianity hitherto, only its lessons of sub- 

 mission to evil, while man has not hesitated to receive the equally 

 important truth that resistance overcomes and conquers it. To man 

 then, we must look, for the chief work in the removal of an evil, 

 which has now become so great, that he must perceive that he too, 

 as well as woman, suffers from it. Woman too, could not, even if 

 desirous, relieve herself, for her faculties have never been trained to 

 invention, nor has she command of capital to make experiments, or 

 even of her own time, if she had the skill to do so. Her own sew- 

 ing machine even, might have waited till doomsday but for man's 

 invention. Had man stood in woman's place, the reform as I said 

 had long ago been achieved. Before attempting to bridge the At- 

 lantic with lightning, he would have found an easy way to get at 

 his dinner; nor would he have crossed continents with steam, till he 

 had got over the clear starching of his shirt ! He would have trans- 

 mitted his messages by mail, till he had found a wire that would 

 control his baking; and endured the old-fashioned stage coach, till 

 he had ridden his washing day on a rail ! 



Man applies the system of exchange in, and division of, labor to 

 his work, and when the same is done for woman's, the household will 

 no longer be an especial burden. A great obstacle in applying 

 this, is found in that absurd want of respect for labor in women, 

 which both sexes carry so far, but wdiich woman herself, by precept 

 and example, should endeavor to remove. While women %cill do 

 (with their husband's consent also) ten hours hard work in their 

 own houses, rather than one hour's li^ht labor for a neighbor, and 

 receive money for it, it is difficult to devise a system of exclxinge of 

 labor, for money is the only convenient representative of it. Still 



