242 AMERICAN FARMS. 



of the man of small income was enabled to join by the 

 side of the husband in the labors of his calling, as in the 

 small retail stores — now almost extinct in our large cities. 

 But of all, the country, under the regime of the small 

 farmer, has afforded the best chances for this most 

 desirable of partnerships. 



The state wherein is destroyed the permanent home 

 life must expect moral degeneracy, and the state which 

 depends upon the great capitalists, and hired labor, and 

 mechanics to supply it with the fruits of the earth must 

 one day see its homes become devoid of character or 

 honor — its mothers forced down from the high and 

 rightful place which they should occupy. 



Of the fallen Grecian Republic, says Mr. Henry C. 

 Carey : " Wisdom, love, chastity, poetry, history, the 

 liberal arts, and even Athens herself, were typified by 

 female figures — Minerva, Venus, Diana, and the Muses 

 having been the objects of divine worship among the 

 people who looked to Solon for their instructions and 

 their laws. When, however, we look to the interior of the 

 Athenian family, we find, as in all cases of semi-barbarism, 

 the home to have no real existence, the wife having been 

 a mere drudge, whose sphere of action was limited to the 

 perpetuation of the family and the superintendence of the 

 household — the husband meanwhile finding the best so- 

 ciety the city could supply in the dwelling of his mistress. 

 Neglected as she was, chastity was then, nevertheless, the 

 characteristic of the Athenian matron. When, however, 

 Athens had become mistress of one thousand cities, when 

 centralization had been fully carried out, when trade, war, 

 and politics had become the sole pursuit of the Athenian 

 men, we find Socrates lending his wife to his friend, 

 while Pericles scarcely surprises his fellow-citizens when 



