spirit of cooperation which alone can bring the benefits of modern science
to the doors of all. One family cannot as a rule put up in a city or in
the suburbs--and half the world lives in cities--its own idea of a house
without undue expenditure; but ten families may combine and secure a
building which fairly suits them all. I say fairly, because all
cooperation means some sacrifice of whim or special liking. The
well-balanced individual will, however, choose the plan yielding on the
whole the greater efficiency, thus following a law of natural selection
which, so far, the human race has ignored--a neglect which has been
carrying him toward destruction as surely as there is law in nature. Is
this neglect to go on, or is man to turn before it is too late to a
cultivation of the effective life? In everything else he has advanced, but
in his intimate personal relations with nature and natural force he has
acted as if he believed himself not only lord of the beasts of the field,
but of the very laws of nature without understanding them. Mechanical
progress has come from an humble attitude toward the powers of wind and
water. Home efficiency will arrive just as soon as the home-keeper will
put herself in a receptive frame of mind and be prepared to learn her
limitations and the extent of her control of material things. When she
will stop saying "I do not believe" and set herself to learn patiently the
facts in the case, then will housekeeping take on a new phase and the
house become the nursery of effective workers who will at the same time
enjoy life. To manage this machine-driven house will require delicate
handling; but let women once overcome their fear of machinery and they
will use it with skill.

The undue influence of sentiment retards all domestic progress. Because
our grandfather's idea of perfect happiness was to sit before the fire of
logs, we are satisfied with the semblance in the form of the
asbestos-covered gas-log. "It is not for the iconoclastic inventor or