Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/518

 plished in the name of the highest truth accessible to her, that is, when she will educate her children in such a way that they may be able to take as little as possible from men and give them as much as possible. The ideal woman will, in my opinion, be she who, having acquired the highest world conception,—the faith which will be accessible to her,—will abandon herself to her feminine calling, which is invincibly inherent in her, of bringing forth, nursing, and educating the largest number of children capable of working for men according to the world conception which she has made her own. But this world conception is not drawn from university courses, but is acquired only by not closing eyes and ears, and by meekness of heart.

Well, and those who have no children, who have not married, widows? They will do well, if they will take part in man's varied work.

And every woman who is through bearing children will, if she has strength, be able to busy herself with this aid to man in his work, and this aid is very precious

A good domestic life is possible only with the conscious conviction, educated in woman, of the necessity of permanent submission to man. I have said that this is proved by the fact that this has been so as far back as we know the life of man, and by this, that domestic life with children is a voyage in a frail boat, which is possible only if all submit to one man. Such they have always recognized man to be, because, since he does not bear children or nurse them, he is able to be a better guide to his wife than the wife can be to her husband.

But are women really always inferior to men? Not at all. The moment both are chaste, they are equal. But what is meant by this, that women now demand, not only equality, but also supremacy? Only this, that the