The answer is simple. That a woman's intellect is eminently
fitted for business is proved by the enormous amount of business
she gets through without any special training for it: but those
faults in a woman of which some men complain are simply the
results of her not having had a special training. She does not
know the laws of business. She does not know the rules of the
game she is playing; and therefore she is playing it in the dark,
in fear and suspicion, apt to judge of questions on personal
grounds, often offending those with whom she has to do, and
oftener still making herself miserable over matters of law or of
business, on which a little sound knowledge would set her head and
her heart at rest.

When I have seen widows, having the care of children, of a great
household, of a great estate, of a great business, struggling
heroically, and yet often mistakenly; blamed severely for
selfishness and ambition, while they were really sacrificing
themselves with the divine instinct of a mother for their
children's interest: I have stood by with mingled admiration and
pity, and said to myself: "How nobly she is doing the work
without teaching! How much more nobly would she have done it had
she been taught! She is now doing her work at the most enormous
waste of energy and of virtue: had she had knowledge, thrift
would have followed it; she would have done more work with far
less trouble. She will probably kill herself if she goes on;
while sound knowledge would have saved her health, saved her
heart, saved her friends, and helped the very loved ones for whom
she labours, not always with success."

A little political economy, therefore, will at least do no harm to