SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 255 



Do not misunderstand me. I have not the sHghtest sym- 

 pathy with those hysterical and foolish creatures who wish women 

 to attain to easy lives by shirking their duties. I have as hearty 

 a contempt for the woman who shirks her duty of bearing and 

 rearing the children, of doing her full housewife's work, as I 

 have for the man who is an idler, who shirks his duty of earning 

 a living for himself and for his children, or who is selfish or 

 brutal toward his wife and children. I believe in the happiness 

 that comes from the performance of duty, not from the avoidance 

 of duty. But I believe also in trying, each of us, as strength is 

 given us, to bear one another's burdens; and this especially 

 in our own homes. No outside training, no co-operation, no 

 government aid or direction can take the place of a strong and 

 upright character ; of goodness of heart combined with clearness 

 of head, and that strength and toughness of fiber necessary to 

 wring success from a rough work-a-day world. Nothing out- 

 side of home can take the place of home. The school is an 

 invaluable adjunct to the home, but it is a wretched substitute 

 for it. The family relation is the most fundamental, the most 

 important of all relations. No leader in church or state, in 

 science or art or industry, however great his achievement, takes 

 the place of the mothers, "who are the first of sovereigns and the 

 most divine of priests." 



