growing up within it,--the home must be
pervaded by the spirit of comfort, cleanliness, affection, and
intelligence. And in order to secure this, the presence of a
well-ordered, industrious, and educated woman is indispensable. So much
depends upon the woman, that we might almost pronounce the happiness or
unhappiness of the home to be woman's work. No nation can advance except
through the improvement of the nation's homes; and these can only be
improved through the instrumentality of women. They must _know_ how to
make homes comfortable; and before they can know, they must have been
taught.

Women must, therefore, have sufficient training to fit them for their
duties in real life. Their education should be conducted throughout,
with a view to their future position as wives, mothers, and housewives.
But amongst all classes, even the highest, the education of girls is
rarely conducted with this object. Amongst the working people, the girls
are sent out to work; amongst the higher classes, they are sent out to
learn a few flashy accomplishments; and men are left to pick from them,
very often with little judgment, the future wives and mothers of
England.

Men themselves attach little or no importance to the intelligence or
industrial skill of women; and they only discover their value when they
find their homes stupid and cheerless. Men are caught by the glance of a
bright eye, by a pair of cherry cheeks, by a handsome figure; and when
they "fall in love," as the phrase goes, they never bethink them of
whether the "loved one" can mend a shirt or cook a pudding. And yet the
most sentimental of husbands must come down from his "ecstatics" so soon
as the knot is tied; and then he soon enough finds out that the clever
hands of a woman are worth far more than her bright glances; and if the
shirt and pudding qualifications be absent, then woe to the unhappy man,
and woe also to the unhappy woman! If the substantial element of
physical comfort be absent from the home, it soon becomes hateful; the
wife, notwithstanding all her good looks, is neglected; and the
public-house separates those whom the law and the Church have joined
together.

Men are really desperately ignorant respecting the home department. If
they thought for a moment of its importance, they would not be so ready
to rush into premature housekeeping. Ignorant men select equally
ignorant women for their wives; and these introduce into the world
families of childr