m quite aware that such a practical philanthropist would meet with
many ungracious returns, and not a few insinuating assertions that her
charity was an insidious attempt to get work "for nothing." But a good
woman would not be deterred by this; she has had but small experience
of life who has not learned that it is often our very best and most
unselfish actions which are suspected, simply because their very
unselfishness makes them unintelligible; and if we do not reverence
what we cannot understand, we suspect it.

It may seem but a small thing to do for charity's sweet sake, but who
shall measure the results? Say that in the course of a year four young
girls receive a practical knowledge of the art of cooking, how far
will the influence of those four eventually reach? The larger part of
all our good deeds is hid from us,--wisely so, else we should be
overmuch lifted up. We have nothing to do with aggregate results, and
I believe that the woman who provides intelligently for her
household, makes it cheerful and restful, and finds heart and space to
help some other woman to a higher life, has the noblest of "missions,"
the grandest of "spheres," and is most blessed among women.

She who adds to household duties maternal duties fills also the
highest national office, since to her hands are committed--not indeed
the laws of the republic but the fate of the republic; for the
children of _to-day_ are the _to-morrow_ of society, and its men of
action will be nothing but unconscious instruments of the patient love
and prayerful thought of the mothers who taught them. And yet let the
women who are excused from this office be grateful for their
indulgence. Alas! how many shoulders without strength have asked for
heavy burdens.

Professional Work for Women

"LABOR! ALL LABOR IS NOBLE AND HOLY!"

That man should provide and woman dispense are the radical conditions of
domestic service; conditions which I believe are highly favorable to
the development of the highest type of womanhood. But at the same
time they are far from embracing all women capable of high development,
nor are they perhaps suitable for every phase of character included
in that myriad-minded creature--woman.

For just as one tree attains its most perfect beauty through
sheltering care, and another strikes the deepest roots and lifts
the greenest boughs by self-reliant struggles, so also some women
reach their highest development through domestic