neral disinclination for that steady,
persevering pursuit of high intellectual aims, of which Agassiz was such
a bright example. They are naturally ambitious of the outward signs of
social position, and also, on account of those they love, eager for the
solid advantages to be obtained by money. They are not content if they
cannot be dressed as finely and 'receive' as elegantly as their friends
do; and, also, they fret if their children do not have such advantages
of education and association as will secure for them an enviable future.
And thus, husbands and fathers are driven, not only to ceaseless
labor--that they would bear willingly--but to the abandonment of their
best-loved pursuits, and their highest, most cherished purposes. Thus,
money-productiveness comes to be the test of the value of all
intellectual labor, even with men who would gladly devote their lives to
science or to literature, and perhaps be willing, for themselves, even
to be poor in a society in which poverty is almost a reproach. Thus it
is that high aspirations are checked, and that strong resolves are
broken. And thus it will be, until we have advanced to such a point of
civilization and culture that we shall award that something which is
only expressed by the word 'consideration' to other eminence than that
which is attained in politics or in trade."

I venture the question with extreme diffidence, but would not this
broader education of future wives and mothers save perhaps so much new
legislation on the subject of divorce as is now in progress in those
parts of the country most characteristically American?

[18] "We are imperfect beings, and in nothing more imperfect than in our
power of appreciating each other's mental suffering. We see the odd
contortions to which they give rise without seeing the reasons for them,
and they are to us fit subjects for caricature. We all know Mrs.
Pardiggle and Mrs. Jellyby, but few who have not borne it, know the pain
of the pressure from within that forces natural activity into such
distorted motion."--Mary Taylor, _First Duty of Women._

[19] "Young America is conceited, disrespectful, does not honor
over-much his mother. Commonly he soon outstrips, or thinks he
outstrips, her mental attainments. Her stature dwindles as his
increases. At best, in his fancied greatness, he pities while he loves
her. But what if she has traversed every inch of these intellectual
regions before him, has scaled those heights,