laws of Nature, have found ready
means to curb the propensity or to destroy it altogether.

It is small matter for surprise, therefore, that woman should have
succeeded in subjecting man to an empire as autocratic as it is, to all
outward appearances, unsuspected. Some people maintain that this empire
is gained solely by physical attraction; but this contention is
disproved easily enough. All women do not possess the charm of beauty;
yet there is scarcely a woman of any nationality, or belonging to any
station in life, who does not exercise a more or less powerful influence
over her menkind.

Husbands are guided by their wives, even in matters of business or
affecting public interests, far more than they are generally ready to
acknowledge. Staying at a seaside hotel some time ago, I made the
acquaintance of a hard-headed Lancashire merchant who had amassed a
comfortable independence. In an outburst of confidence he told me one
day that he had never taken a single important step in the conduct of
his business without consulting his wife, and he also acknowledged that
he had never had to regret asking her advice.

The moral of this story is the more significant when it is recollected
that in such a case the wife has not had the same opportunities as her
husband of forming a correct judgment. The latter has the business
details at his finger-ends; he is acquainted with the person or persons
with whom the dealings are taking place; and he has his experience to
fall back upon. But somehow or other the wife seems to grasp all the
points, and to see more clearly into the motives of the person
concerned. 'Why,' she will exclaim to her husband, 'can't you see that
So-and-so is trying to bamboozle you?' And, the scales falling from the
deluded husband's eyes, he suddenly makes the discovery that his wife
thinks where his own powers of reflection are contented to remain
dormant.

The fact is, that the habit of thinking cannot be acquired through
exercise in mental gymnastics. Philosophers, mathematicians, and men of
science are notoriously up in the clouds, and incapable often to a
remarkable degree of managing the affairs of everyday life with common
sense. Yet these are the individuals who have been subjected to the
highest form of what is called mental training. If fact-cramming and
mental gymnastics are the best developers of the human mind, these men
ought to be perfect models of intelligence. But will any candid-minded