Page:The Relations Tolstoy.pdf/82

 without this knowledge the activities of both man and woman become not useful but harmful to mankind. Man is called to fulfill various works, but all his efforts, his labor (to grow corn or to make guns), his mental work (to alleviate the life of men, or count money), his religious activity (to unite men, or sing Te-Deums), all are useful and fruitful only then when they are accomplished in the name of the highest truth accessible to him. So also with woman's calling: her giving birth to, nursing, rearing children, will be useful to mankind when she brings up not merely children for her own pleasure, but future servants of humanity; when the education of these children has been undertaken in the name of the highest truth known to her; that is to say, when she has educated her children so that they are capable of taking from men as little and giving to them as much as possible. The ideal woman, as I conceive her, will be the one who having assimilated the highest life-conception, life-faith that she is acquainted with, abandons herself to the feminine instincts irresistibly implanted in her mind, and gives birth to, rears and educates, the greatest possible number of children capable of working for mankind according to the life-conception she has assimilated. And this life-conception is not to be found at universities for women, -it is obtained merely by not closing one's eyes and ears, and by the receptivity of one's heart. Well, and those who have no children, or who have not married, and widows? They will do well if they participate in man's various work. Every woman, when she has accomplished her calling in relation to her children, is able, if strong enough, to help her husband in his work, and such help is very valuable.