men. The leading principle of
aristocracy, which is to take pay without work, to live on the toils
and earnings of others, is one which obtains more generally among
women than among men in this country. The men of our country, as a
general thing, even in our uppermost classes, always propose to
themselves some work or business by which they may acquire a fortune,
or enlarge that already made for them by their fathers. The women of
the same class propose to themselves nothing but to live at their ease
on the money made for them by the labors of fathers and husbands. As a
consequence, they become enervated and indolent,--averse to any
bracing, wholesome effort, either mental or physical. The unavoidable
responsibilities and cares of a family, instead of being viewed by
them in the light of a noble life work, in which they do their part in
the general labors of the world, seem to them so many injuries and
wrongs; they seek to turn them upon servants, and find servants
unwilling to take them; and so selfish are they, that I have heard
more than one lady declare that she didn't care if it was unjust, she
should like to have slaves, rather than be plagued with servants who
had so much liberty. All the novels, poetry, and light literature of
the world, which form the general staple of female reading, are based
upon aristocratic institutions, and impregnated with aristocratic
ideas; and women among us are constantly aspiring to foreign and
aristocratic modes of life rather than to those of native republican
simplicity. How many women are there, think you, that would not go in
for aristocracy and aristocratic prerogatives, if they were only sure
that they themselves should be of the privileged class? To be 'My Lady
Duchess,' and to have a right by that simple title to the prostrate
deference of all the lower orders! How many would have firmness to
vote against such an establishment merely because it was bad for
society? Tell the fair Mrs. Feathercap, 'In order that you may be a
duchess, and have everything a paradise of elegance and luxury around
you and your children, a hundred poor families must have no chance for
anything better than black bread and muddy water all their lives, a
hundred poor men must work all their lives on such wages that a
fortnight's sickness will send their families to the almshouse, and
that no amount of honesty and forethought can lay up any provision for
old age.'"

"Come now, sir," said Jenny, "don'