pocket of the store-keeper, but the profit also that he has made on the wretched wages of his seamstresses. Meantime, our daughters are scarcely taught sewing at all, and in fifty years the needle will be well-nigh as obsolete as the spinning-wheel.
Men's Prejudices on this Subject.
One might think that men would reflect on what they have done by their machinery, in thus degrading women from the honourable rank of manufacturing producers into the dependent position of unproductive consumers, and, seeing the exhaustive drain that such an army of expensive idlers must inevitably be upon society, that they would be glad to encourage them in every way to find new paths for their energies. Instead of this, however, they all by common consent frown on our attempts to support ourselves, or on our being anything whatever but "wives and mothers." The egotism of the French king who said to his subjects, "I am the state," is far surpassed by that of educated gentlemen toward the ladies of their families,—"Be contented at home with what I can give you," say they all,—which, explained, means,—"As far as you are concerned, I am the universe, and whatever portion of it you cannot find in me, or in the four walls wherewith I shelter you, you must do without," and they manage very adroitly to keep the feminine aspirations within these bounds without appearing to exercise any coercion whatever. Does a young girl love study, or charity, or art, better than dress or dancing? The young men simply neglect her, and she is deprived of social enjoyment. Has a wife an eager desire to energize and perfect some gift of which she is conscious, her husband "will not oppose it," but he is sure that she will fail in her attempt, or is uneasy lest she make herself conspicuous and neglect her housekeeping. Or if a daughter wishes to go out into the world from the narrow duties and stifling air of her father's house, and earn a living there by some talent for which she is remarkable, he will not forbid
