Having glanced at the present state of things, and at some of its
causes, let us show reasons why it should be changed.

A sufficient reason is, because it dwarfs the intellect, ruins the
health, and shortens the lives, of so many women. Another reason is,
that whereas the husband may keep himself informed on matters of
general interest in literature, art, science, and progress, while the
wife must give her mind to domestic activities, there is danger of the
two growing apart, which growing apart is destructive of that perfect
sympathy so essential to the happiness of married life. A certain
librarian remarked. "If a man wants a book for himself, I pick out a
solid work; if for his wife, a somewhat light and trifling one."
Third, because human beings have so much in common, are so closely
connected, that the good of all requires the good of each, and each of
all. And here is where the shortsightedness of the aristocracy of
wealth and the aristocracy of sex are strikingly apparent. They fail
to see that the very inferiority of what are called the inferior
classes re-acts on the superior classes. We all know how it is in the
human body. An injury to one small bone in the foot may cause distress
which shall be felt "all over," and shall disturb the operations of
the lordly brain itself. So in the body social. The wealthy and
refined, into whose luxurious dwellings enters no unsightly, no
uncleanly object, may say to themselves, "Never mind those poor
wretches down at the other end, huddled together in their filthy
tenements. They are ignorant, they don't know how to get along; but
their condition doesn't concern us, so long as our houses are light,
clean, and airy."

Those poor wretches, however, because they are ignorant, because they
don't know how "to get along," because they live huddled together in