And today, when the lofty theorist, who tonight stands before the drawing-
room fire in spotless shirtfront and perfectly fitting clothes, and
declaims upon the amplitude of woman's work in life as child-bearer, and
the mighty value of that labour which exceeds all other, making it
unnecessary for her to share man's grosser and lower toils: is it certain
he always in practical life remembers his theory? When waking tomorrow
morning, he finds that the elderly house drudge, who rises at dawn while he
yet sleeps to make his tea and clean his boots, has brought his tea late,
and polished his boots ill; may he not even sharply condemn her, and assure
her she will have to leave unless she works harder and rises earlier? Does
he exclaim to her, "Divine child-bearer! Potential mother of the race!
Why should you clean my boots or bring up my tea, while I lie warm in bed?
Is it not enough you should have the holy and mysterious power of bringing
the race to life? Let that content you. Henceforth I shall get up at dawn
and make my own tea and clean my own boots, and pay you just the same!"
Or, should his landlady, now about to give birth to her ninth child, send
him up a poorly-cooked dinner or forget to bring up his scuttle of coals,
does he send for her and thus apostrophise the astonished matron: "Child-
bearer of the race! Producer of men! Cannot you be contented with so
noble and lofty a function in life without toiling and moiling? Why carry
up heavy coal-scuttles from the cellar and bend over hot fires, wearing out
nerve and brain and muscle that should be reserved for higher duties? We,
we, the men of the race, will perform its mean, its sordid, its grinding
toil! For woman is beauty, peace, repose! Your function is to give life,
not to support it by labour. The Mother, the Mother! How wonderful it
sounds! Toil no more! Rest is for you; labour and drudgery for us!"
Would he not rather assure her that, unless she laboured more assiduously
and sternly, she would lose his custom and so be unable to pay her month's
rent; and perhaps so, with children and an invalid or drunken husband whom