Another young man offers to successive maidens a skein of tangled silk
to wind. The first says, "I can't;" the second tries, and gives up;
the third makes a quick job of it with her scissors; the fourth spends
hours in patiently, untangling, and is chosen. Now, what shows the
state of public sentiment is the fact that in none of these legends is
it intimated that the young man was fortunate in securing a thrifty or
a patient wife. It was the thrifty or patient young woman who was
fortunate in being selected by a young man,--by any young man; for the
character of the youth is never stated. There is an inference, also,
in the second one given, that the "hours" of a young woman can be
employed to no better purpose than that of untangling a skein of silk.
All this is throwing light on our problem, for so long as so much is
expected of woman physically, and so little in the way of mental
acquirements; so long as it is taken for granted that she is a
subordinate being, that to contribute to the physical comfort and
pleasure of man, and gain his approval, are the highest purposes of
her existence,--it will not be considered essential that she should
acquire culture. These aims are by no means unimportant ones, or
unworthy ones; but are they in all cases the highest a woman should
possess?




CHAPTER VI.

REASONS FOR A CHANGE.--THE EARLY TRAINING OP WOMEN.--COMMON
FALLACIES.--THE EDUCATION OF MOTHERS.