relation between man and woman
is stated, it is thus said, with quaint simplicity: 'It is not good
that the man should be alone; I will make him an _help meet_ for him.'
Woman the _helper_ of man, not his toy,--not a picture, not a statue,
not a work of art, but a HELPER, a doer,--such is the view of the
Bible and the Christian religion.

"It is not necessary that women should work physically or morally to
an extent which impairs beauty. In France, where woman is harnessed
with an ass to the plough which her husband drives,--where she digs,
and wields the pick-axe,--she becomes prematurely hideous; but in
America, where woman reigns as queen in every household, she may
surely be a good and thoughtful housekeeper, she may have physical
strength exercised in lighter domestic toils, not only without
injuring her beauty, but with manifest advantage to it. Almost every
growing young girl would be the better in health, and therefore
handsomer, for two hours of active housework daily; and the habit of
usefulness thereby gained would be an equal advantage to her moral
development. The labors of modern, well-arranged houses are not in any
sense severe; they are as gentle as any kind of exercise that can be
devised, and they bring into play muscles that ought to be exercised
to be healthily developed.

"The great danger to the beauty of American women does not lie, as the
writer of the 'Post' contends, in an overworking of the physical
system which shall stunt and deform; on the contrary, American women
of the comfortable classes are in danger of a loss of physical beauty
from the entire deterioration of the muscular system for want of
exercise. Take the life of any American girl in one of our large
towns, and see what it is. We have an educational system of public
schools which for intellectual culture is a just matter of pride to
any country. From the time that the girl is seven years old, her first
thought, when she rises in the morning, is to eat her breakfast and be
off to her school. There really is no more time than enough to allow
her to make that complete toilet which every well-bred female ought to
make, and to take her morning meal before her school begins. She
returns at noon with just time to eat her dinner, and the afternoon
session begins. She comes home at night with books, slate, and lessons
enough to occupy her evening. What time is there for teaching her any
household work, for teaching her to cut or fit or