Industrious, skilful, wise, provident and kind, she is rewarded by the praise and affection of husband and children-- _Her husband also, and he praiseth her saying:_ _“Many daughters have done excellently But thou excellest them all.”_ Wherefore despite the despondent query, _A virtuous woman who can find?_ which somewhat quaintly introduces this eulogy, we may believe that the ideal thus pictured was a reality in many Jewish homes. To be critical, the poem has a touch of the _Hausfrau_ conception which is none too pleasing, but it does not set out to say everything about Woman, and one might fairly read some romance between the lines; certainly the enthusiasm of the last verse has a note of something deeper than “thanks for value received.” To give further assurance, if that be required, we may also quote this happy saying, _Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour from the Lord_ (Pr. 18^{22}). The treatment of children advocated by the Wise is accurately, although too succinctly, summarised in the notorious “Spare the rod and spoil the child” doctrine (cp. Pr. 13^{24}). Thus we are told, _The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself causeth shame to his mother_ (Pr. 29^{15})--_Withhold not correction from a child, for if thou beat him with the rod he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from Sheol_ (Pr. 23^{13, 14}). All this sounds merely harsh. But the splendid records of Jewish family life make one suspect that the Wise were sterner in their words than in their deeds, that at least their justice was often tempered with mercy and their discipline with genuine affection. Ben Sirach, the most severe, is also the most encouraging. Here is a truly forbidding passage: _Pamper thy child, and he shall make thee afraid; play with him and he will grieve thee. Laugh not with him, lest thou have sorrow with him and thou shalt gnash thy teeth in the end. Give him no liberty in his youth, and wink not at his follies. Bow down his neck in his youth, and beat him on the sides while he is a child, lest he wax stubborn and be disobedient unto thee, and there shall be sorrow unto thy soul_ (E. 30^{9-12}). But against its ferocious energy set the kindly, peaceable atmosphere of this exhortation in which Ben Sirach expands the fifth commandment on the relations of children to parents: _He that giveth glory to his father shall have length of days, and he that hearkeneth to the Lord shall bring rest to his mother. In word and deed honour thy father that a blessing may come upon thee from him: for the blessing of the father stablisheth the children’s houses, but the curse of the mother rooteth out the foundations.... My son, help thy father in his old age, and grieve him not as long as he liveth. If he fail in understanding, have patience with him, and dishonour him not all the days of his life. For