=A Definite Occupation a Physical Necessity.=—It is now generally conceded by the leading sociologists of the day that women who are not engaged in the duties of maternity need the same intellectual and industrial activities as men. Many go further, and it is their opinion that there is no reason for excluding women, who are fulfilling the duties of maternity, from exercising full intellectual and physical activities in other directions. And the proof that this is not a mere theoretic assumption is to be found in the fact that many women have not only given birth to a family of children, but have successfully reared them, and, in addition, have been eminent in other pursuits and callings. Well-known illustrations of this fact are to be found among the most noted sovereigns that Europe has ever had—Catherine de Medici, Maria Theresa, Catherine II of Russia, and Queen Victoria. Pleasure seeking, as the end and object of life, leads to ennui, disgust, and physical and mental deterioration, while the slavery of housework, the childish vanities, and petty cares and vexations are most injurious to the nervous system, so that for the life of the housewife the education preceding it should be broad; and the more highly educated the woman is, so much the more effectually can she free herself from attaching too much importance to every little detail, and so neglecting what is higher and more important, and it will be a great preventive of irritability of temper, quarrelsomeness, and even melancholia and mental derangement, from which so many of these women suffer in consequence of the monotony of their lives. Every girl when she leaves school, which she should consider the very alphabet of her education, should prepare herself for some definite occupation, just as her brother does. Clouston, in answer to the question as to how the powers of the mind can best be developed, conserved, and made the best use of for life’s work, says: “It is a most fortunate thing, if, during the later period of adolescence, an occupation in life has been selected which really suits the capacity of the individual and goes with his innate tendencies. The seriousness and the settledness of the life of the period, with the bracing of every nerve and sinew to do the work, to gain a reasonable position in society, and to enjoy a fair amount of happiness, is in itself a tonic of no mean value, while overtaxing of body and mind is always a risk, as well as an ambition which overreaches itself. The repressions of woman’s life in civilized society constitute one of her serious strains and dangers. The life and conditions of a working woman who has six or seven children in a few years, who has small means, and but little help, is in my judgment the very hardest of any human being in our modern social system.”