I might in this place refer to another of those conditions of life inherent in our civilization, which is unfavorable to the mental health of the female sex, viz., the limited sphere of physical and mental occupation, as compared with that of the male sex. So much, however, has been written on this subject in its relations to and effects upon the general welfare of women, and there appears to be so large a tendency on the part of society, at least in this country, to admit her to any and almost all such occupations as she may qualify herself to follow, that I shall not refer to it further than to remark that, in so far as there may exist a disposition on the part of women to avoid the care and responsibility incident to home life and family, and, instead, to indulge in physical inactivity; in so far as they avoid physical exercise in the open air, and spend their hours of leisure in reading exciting novels, or love-stories, whose heroes and heroines are generally of almost any other kind of character than real, living, healthy, ones; in so far as they avoid the conscientious discharge of those duties which devolve upon them by virtue of their high mission as wives and mothers, and seek, instead, to follow occupations or professions for which they cannot be best qualified by reason of the nature, physiological activities, and duties of their sex; in so far as they divert that nervous energy and physical strength which is designed by nature to enable them to discharge the sacred function of motherhood into other channels of activity, however high and ennobling they may be,--in just so far are they deviating from that great highway which leads to mental health and the highest interests of humanity. No aspirations of woman can ever reach so high and grand a sphere in the activities of the world as that enshrined in the name of mother; and since Nature has crowned her with this supremest function, all effort to forget or change it, to belittle or push it aside for other more transitory pleasures or missions, can only lead, in the end, to unhappiness and too often to disease. CHAPTER XIII. POVERTY. Physical labor is one of the greatest promoters of both physical and mental health, and its necessity should therefore be regarded as a blessing rather than a curse for the vast majority of mankind. On the other hand, idleness of mind and body, or conditions of life which give neither opportunity nor necessity for exertion, tend toward ill-health and unhappiness, and consequently are to be avoided.