Their so-called "social duties"; the minute and nerve-destroying
precision of their housekeeping; their unnecessary overloading of
themselves with tasks futile and fictitious; the determination to
"appear" a little better than their neighbors, and, above all, to have
their children (their _one_ or _two_ children) particularly spick and
span; the long catalogue of folly into which our high-geared, modern
civilization has led our women, and through no fault of theirs--"all
these," said an eminent neurologist, in talking of this absorbing
topic, "are impairing the agreeableness and curtailing the usefulness
of our women, and will in the end destroy our women themselves."
I hope it is not true. If it is true, we had better find the cause of
it and apply the remedy, or we are a lost people; for that nation is
doomed whose women have ceased to be vital, good-tempered, and
home-loving.
May not the too heavy early education of young girls have something to
do with this later desperation of their nerves? Is not the blood taken
from vital centers where Nature meant it to go for the upbuilding of
womanhood and forced into the brain at a period when Nature meant that
brain to be the very paradise of joyous dreams and happy imaginings?
While we may thus gain a staccato smartness, a jerky and inconsequent
brilliancy, do we not lose something of the natural woman and the
delicious heartiness, spontaneous wit and instinctive wisdom of her? I
venture no opinion here--I merely suggest the query.
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