improvement of women are to be secured by investing them with
political power. There are, however, in these days, many
believers in the potentiality of "votes," (22) who anticipate some
indefinite good from the "enfranchisement" of women. It is not
necessary here to enter upon the discussion of this question. But
it may be sufficient to state that the power which women do not
possess politically is far more than compensated by that which
they exercise in private life--by their training in the home
those who, whether as men or as women, do all the manly as well as
womanly work of the world. The Radical Bentham has said that man,
even if he would, cannot keep power from woman; for that she
already governs the world "with the whole power of a despot," (23)
though the power that she mainly governs by is love. And to form
the character of the whole human race, is certainly a power far
greater than that which women could ever hope to exercise as
voters for members of Parliament, or even as lawmakers.

There is, however, one special department of woman's work
demanding the earnest attention of all true female reformers,
though it is one which has hitherto been unaccountably neglected.
We mean the better economizing and preparation of human food, the
waste of which at present, for want of the most ordinary culinary
knowledge, is little short of scandalous. If that man is to be
regarded as a benefactor of his species who makes two stalks of
corn to grow where only one grew before, not less is she to be
regarded as a public benefactor who economizes and turns to the
best practical account the food-products of human skill and
labour. The improved use of even our existing supply would be
equivalent to an immediate extension of the cultivable acreage of
our country--not to speak of the increase in health, economy, and