This arrangement was considered no hardship by the wife; for she was relieved of domestic cares, and control of domestic servants, which, as a rule, the husband discharged with great success. It was frequently found that a master obtained readier obedience and more faithful service than a mistress. Whether this was owing to his requirements being less exacting than those of a mistress, or to that indefinable influence which one sex holds over the other, cannot be determined; doubtless it was a combination of the two that gave the man greater empire over the woman-servant. It is not to be supposed that a domestic servant occupied the humble position she held in previous times; for a well-appointed household requiring at least four servants, in the nineteenth century would at this period need but one. The vast amount of mechanical contrivances worked by electricity minimised labour to such an extent that it raised the position of a domestic servant to that of a working electrician of the nineteenth century; which period saw the birth of the practical use of electric energy. In fact, a thoroughly good domestic servant who knew her work, that is to say, a woman who understood, and successfully conducted the various machines, keeping them in working order, could readily command her two pounds a week, and run a home, husband, and children on her own account. The social economy of this time was entirely different to that of any previous period. Marriage in no way incapacitated a woman-servant from keeping her situation. Indeed, it had a contrary effect; most people preferring a steady-going married woman with responsibilities, to a flirty inexperienced maiden who might use her position in the household to wile away a heedless son, or a somewhat lonesome husband. As a rule, however, such an occurrence happened rarely; the marriage state was mostly a very happy one, and faithfully kept on both sides, for a high standard of morality ruled supreme. Other factors supported this beneficent condition; for all being equal as breadwinners, and the number of the sexes equally balanced, a man deemed himself fortunate when he secured a good wife and did his utmost to please her. On her side affection alone prompted her to marry; the unworthy motive of making marriage the means of obtaining a home of her own, no longer existed, as every parent trained his daughter equally as his son to hold a position of independence, by giving her a trade, or profession to follow. Both humble and high-born possessed more or less practical knowledge of physiology; especially those branches dealing directly with health, and the functions of reproduction, which enabled women to fill more intelligently the positions of wife and mother.