n the
mental and spiritual development of the group to which she belongs.
Life at every one of its seven stages has its peculiar harrowing
experiences; hope mingles with uncertainty in youth; fear and struggle
characterize early manhood; disillusionment, the question whether it
is worth while, fill the years from forty to fifty,--but resolute
grappling with each period brings one out almost inevitably into a
fine serene certainty which cannot but have its effect on those who
are younger. Ripe old age, cheerful, useful, and understanding, is one
of the finest influences in the world. We hang Rembrandt's or
Whistler's picture of his mother on our walls that we may feel its
quieting hand, the sense of peace and achievement which the picture
carries. We have no better illustration of the meaning of old age.

Family and social groups should be a blend of all ages. One of the
present weaknesses of our society is that we herd each age together.
The young do not have enough of the stimulating intellectual influence
of their elders. The elders do not have enough of the vitalizing
influence of the young. We make up our dinner party according to age,
with the result that we lose the full, fine blend of life.

The notion that a woman has no worthy place or occupation after she is
fifty or sixty, and that she can be utilized in public affairs, could
only be entertained by one who has no clear conception of either
private or public affairs--no vision of the infinite reaches of the
one or the infinite complexities of the other. Human society may be
likened to two great circles, one revolving within the other. In the
inner circle rules the woman. Here she breeds and trains the material
for the outer circle, which exists only by and for her. That accident
may throw her into this outer circle is of course true, but it is not
her natural habitat, nor is she fitted by nature to live and circulate
freely there. We underestimate, too, the kind of experience which is
essential for intelligent citizenship in this outer circle. To know
what is wise and needed there one should circulate in it. The man at
his labor in the street, in the meeting places of men, learns
unconsciously, as a rule, the code, the meaning, the need of public
affairs as woman learns those of private affairs. What it all amounts
to is that the labor of the world is naturally divided between the
two different beings that people the world. It is unfair to the woman
that she