problem of marriage also. All of which may seem rather trivial and
unimportant to some men, but in my belief it is connected in a
strangely intimate way with the success of life.

Of course the converse to all this is that wives do well to enter into
their husbands' interests. It is often done with amazing success. I can
think at the moment of doctors, lawyers, engineers, shopkeepers,
scholars, writers, financiers, teachers, and ministers whose wives have
entered keenly and with intelligence into all their cares, plans, and
labors. And in every such case the friendship between man and wife has
been very close, and the marriage truly happy. When this is not done, I
often wonder why. I suppose some wives do not understand their
husbands' affairs at first, and cannot be bothered trying to
understand. I suppose that some husbands are too impatient to explain,
and that others really cannot. If so it is a pity. Possibly some would
rather not explain. I have often wondered what the wives of many modern
business men think of modern business methods; and I suspect that
generally they simply do not know the truth. But I repeat it is a very
great pity when a wife has no relation to her husband's business. It
means that he has a life quite apart from her. And if it be said that
many a man wants to forget his business and all its worries as soon as
he gets inside his own front door, it is equally true that often such
men have worries they cannot forget, and that they would be stronger
and happier men if they only knew what a woman's sympathy is.

All of which seems to me so very important--so inevitably important--
that I cannot but think it should be remembered when young men and
women are deciding about their marriages. Have you noticed the lines on
the face of that greatest of men--Abraham Lincoln? They were there in
large measure because he married a woman who could not or would not