g her a participator. But reason says,
and God has said, that it is the duty of wives to be obedient to their
husbands; and the very nature of things prescribes that there must be _a
head_ of every house, and an _undivided_ authority. And then it is so
clearly _just_ that the authority should rest with him on whose head
rests the whole responsibility, that a woman, when patiently reasoned
with on the subject, must be a virago in her very nature not to submit
with docility to the terms of her marriage vow.

187. There are, in almost every considerable neighbourhood, a little
squadron of she-commanders, generally the youngish wives of old or
weak-minded men, and generally without children. These are the
tutoresses of the young wives of the vicinage; they, in virtue of their
experience, not only school the wives, but scold the husbands; they
teach the former how to encroach and the latter how to yield: so that if
you suffer this to go quietly on, you are soon under the care of a
_comite_ as completely as if you were insane. You want no _comite_:
reason, law, religion, the marriage vow; all these have made you head,
have given you full power to rule your family, and if you give up your
right, you deserve the contempt that assuredly awaits you, and also the
ruin that is, in all probability, your doom.

188. Taking it for granted that you will not suffer more than a second
or third session of the female _comite_, let me say a word or two about
the conduct of men in deciding between the conflicting opinions of
husbands and wives. When a wife has _a point to carry_, and finds
herself hard pushed, or when she thinks it necessary to call to her aid
all the force she can possibly muster, one of her resources is, the vote
on her side of all her husband's visiting friends. 'My husband thinks so
and so, and I think so and so; now, Mr. Tomkins, don't you think _I am
right_?' To be sure he does; and so does Mr. Jenkins, and so does
Wilkins, and so does Mr. Dickins, and you would swear that they were all
her _kins_. Now this is very foolish, to say the least of it. None of
these complaisant _kins_ would like this in their own case. It is the
fashion to say _aye_ to all that a woman asserts, or contends for,
especially in contradiction to her husband; and a very pernicious
fashion it is. It is, in fact, not to pay her a compliment worthy of
acceptance, but to treat her as an empty and conceited fool; and no
sensible woman will, except f