for the present prevailing feminine superficiality would be taken away, and there would be no reason why every woman should not now select her own specialty and perfect herself in it. In the quiet and peace of the new order of things the house-mistress would have so much time on her hands, that, though at first, with genuine feminine timidity and distrust of what is untried, she might have declined taking any "active part" in co-operation beyond buying her membership share of stock, ordering her meals and clothing, and paying for them when they were delivered, yet eventually the practical housewifely spirit of the association would communicate itself to her, and she would find it for her happiness to spend two or three hours of every day in company with her friends and acquaintance, like them doing her best in co-operative kitchen or laundry or sewing-room to promote the domestic comfort and social happiness of the community.
And I believe that not the smallest part of her pleasure in her work would be the sense that she was sure to be paid for it in money whatever it was worth. The labours of married women are now compensated very differently and very unjustly. Here will be seen a woman slaving herself to death, with one servant or none at all, up early and down late, keeping her house neat, her table supplied, her children tastefully dressed, saving and economizing in every direction, and getting for it all only the simplest food, furniture, and dress, together with an excellent chance of a quiet grave at forty; while there one of her acquaintance, perhaps not half so clever or so industrious as she, saunters through life surrounded with every luxury, and even looks down with contempt on her less fortunate sister. I say that now scarcely any woman stands among her own sex on her own merits, but in co-operative housekeeping this would in a measure be done away. One or two excellent housekeepers have said to me, when suggesting it as the true plan for perfect housewifery, "Ah yes! but it is the faithful and energetic few who would do all the work, and the indolent or incompetent majority would reap all the benefit." Even
