Just how the home became more and more segregated and the family life
more individualized is not in the province of this book to detail. This
is certain: that the home was not only a place where man and woman
mated, where their children were born and reared, where food was
prepared and cooked, and where shelter from the elements was obtained;
it was also the first great workshop, where all the manifold industries
had their inception and early development. The housewife was then not
only mother, wife, cook, and nurse; she was the spinner, the weaver, the
tanner, the dyer, the brewer, the druggist.

Even in the high civilization of the Jews this wide scope of the
housewife prevailed. Read what the wisest, perhaps because most
married, of men says:

She seeketh wool and flax,
And worketh willingly with her hands.
She is like the merchant ships;
She bringeth her food from afar.
She considereth a field, and buyeth it.
With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
She girdeth her loins with strength,
And maketh strong her arms.
She perceiveth that her merchandise is good.
Her lamp goeth not out by night.
She layeth her hands to the distaff
And her hands hold the spindle.

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