ter
knowledge of the beloved one! It is no longer an ephemeral fancy, but a
solid affection. In order to love well and truly, you must know well and
thoroughly. There must be between people in love that blind confidence,
that complete _abandon_, which can only be born of the sweet habit to
constantly see each other and to understand each other better and better
every day. With such love you can brave all obstacles, but with a
caprice it vanishes at the first violent storm.

Sincere, serious love is never love at first sight. When one look--and
the first one, too--binds a man and a woman, you may be sure that one
single word will soon be sufficient to unbind them. Lasting love comes
slowly, progressively. Heart alone has never been particularly
successful unless in partnership with that sober and wise counsellor
that is called Reason. No love is placed on a solid basis which is not
governed by reason as well as by the heart.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN

I have just digested a most interesting book by M. Novicow, entitled
'L'Affranchisement de la Femme.' This is a very serious subject, and I
feel sure that I need not apologize for treating it with all the
earnestness of which I am capable.

In a society organized in conformity with the nature of things, woman
will be brought up, from infancy, with the same object in view as
man--that is to say, in order to learn how to live by her work. And so
it should be, since work is the universal law of biology. Every living
creature, from the invisible microbe to the most powerful animal, works
unceasingly to assure its existence. Work being the law of Nature, to
remain idle is to resist that law and to be immoral.

Woman must become an independent economic unity. There is nothing
revolutionary in this; on the contrary, it is a most conservative idea.
The leisure class does not represent one-thousandth part of society, and
999 out of every 1,000 women have, or should have, to work to support
themselves or help to support their families.

From time immemorial women have worked in families, in manufactures,
offices, in the fields, either as mistresses of houses, as helps, or as
servants.

If woman has to be recognised as an independent economic unity, her
education should enable her to earn her living, and, whether she gets
married or not, she ought always to be ready to support herself without
the help of man. Knowledge of every description should be