As We Are and As We May Be | Page 8

friends struck down by
death or disaster, but they never think it may be their turn next. And yet
the happiness to reflect, if death or disaster does come, that your girls
are safe!
One sees here, besides, a splendid opening for the rich uncle, the
benevolent godfather, the affectionate grandfather, the kindly aunt, the
successful brother. They will come bearing gifts--not the silver cup, if
you please, but the Deferred Annuity. 'I bring you, my dear, in honour
of your little Molly's birthday, an increase of five pounds to her
Deferred Annuity. This makes it up to twenty pounds, and the
money-box getting on, you say, to another pound. Capital! we shall
have her thirty-five pounds in no time now.' What a noble field for the
uncle!
The endowment of the daughter is essentially a woman's question. The
bride, or at least her mother for her, ought to consider that, though
every family quiver varies in capacity with the income, her own lot
may be to have a quiver full. Heaven forbid, as Montaigne said, that we
should interfere with the feminine methods, but common prudence
seems to dictate the duty of this forecast. Let, therefore, the demand for
endowment come from the bride's mother. All that she would be
justified in asking of a man whose means are as yet narrow, would be
such an endowment, gradually purchased, as would keep the girls from
starvation.
For my own part, I think that no woman should be forced to work at all,
except at such things as please her. When a woman marries, for
instance, she voluntarily engages herself to do a vast quantity of work.
To look after the house and to bring up the children involves daily,
unremitting labour and thought. If she has a vocation for any kind of
work, as for Art, or Letters, or Teaching, let her obey the call and find
her happiness. Generally she has none. The average woman--I make
this statement with complete confidence--hates compulsory work: she
hates and loathes it. There are, it is true, some kinds of work which

must be done by women. Well, there will always be enough for those
occupations among women who prefer work to idleness.
There is another very serious consideration. There is only so much
work--a limited quantity--in the world: so many hands for whom
occupation can be found--and the number of hands wanted does not
very greatly exceed that of the male hands ready for it. Now, by giving
this work to women, we take it from the men. If we open the Civil
Service to women, we take so many posts from the men, which we give
to the women, at a lower salary; if they become cashiers, accountants,
clerks, they take these places from the men, at a lower salary. Always
they take lower pay, and turn the men out. Well, the men must either go
elsewhere, or they must take the lower pay. In either case the happiest
lot of all--that of marriage--is rendered more difficult, because the men
are made poorer; the position of the toiler becomes harder, because he
gets worse pay; then man's sense of responsibility for the women of his
family is destroyed. Nay, in some cases the men actually live, and live
contentedly, upon the labour of their wives. But when all is said about
women, and their rights and wrongs, and their work and place, and their
equality and their superiority, we fall back at last upon nature. There is
still, and will always remain with us, the sense in man that it is his duty
to work for his wife, and the sense in woman that nothing is better for
her than to receive the fruits of her husband's labour.
Let us endow the Daughters: those who are not clever, in order to save
them from the struggles of the Incompetent and the hopelessness of the
Dependent; those who are clever, so as to give them time for work and
training. The Bread-winner may die: his powers may cease: he may
lose his clients, his reputation, his popularity, his business; in a
thousand forms misfortune and poverty may fall upon him. Think of
the happiness with which he would then contemplate that endowment
of a Deferred Annuity. And the endowment will not prevent or interfere
with any work the girls may wish to do. It will even help them in their
work. My brothers, let our girls work if they wish; perhaps they will be
happier if they work let them work at whatever kind of work they may
desire; but not--oh not--because they must.

[1888.]

FROM THIRTEEN TO SEVENTEEN

In the history of every measure designed for the amelioration of the
people there may be observed four distinct and clearly marked