Page:Women of distinction.djvu/20

xii energies into new channels, refreshes and invigorates the tired wife and mother and enables her to give of her best to the dear ones at home. The various gatherings of women thronghout the land, in clubs and societies and combinations for the progress of the temperance movement and other reforms, are to be applauded, even if they accomplish no other good than this drawing away, for a time at least, of wives and mothers from the tread-mill of a routine house-life.

The fruits of woman's work are not, however, to be so limited. Organized she has advanced countless humanitarian causes, while individually she has risen to eminence in the varied fields of her choice. Will any one sneer at the life-work of Hannah More, Harriet Martineau, Caroline Herschel? Can any be found, even among those who oppose the public life of women, to do otherwise than commend the character and achievements of such women as Florence Nightingale, Frances Willard, Clara Barton and Mary Livermore?

This widening of woman's sphere of thought and action is a thing to be encouraged rather than denounced, even by those wdio reverence most highly the home-life and believe that woman finds there her truest element and highest usefulness. In the "good old days" marriage was deemed a necessity to woman, the end of her being, while only an incident, albeit an important one, in the career of man. Women shrank from the title of "old maid," and to avoid that and an aimless, purpose less existence, or to secure a home and the means of support, were tempted often into loveless, unsuitable