L. Yes; if we are told; and told in the way you mean, Lucilla; but nothing is said of the proportion to pleasure. Unmitigated pain would kill any of us in a few hours; pain equal to our pleasures would make us loathe life; the word itself cannot be applied to the lower conditions of matter in its ordinary sense. But wait till to-morrow to ask me about this. To-morrow is to be kept for questions and difficulties; let us keep to the plain facts to-day. There is yet one group of facts connected with this rending of the rocks, which I especially want you to notice. You know, when you have mended a very old dress, quite meritoriously, till it won't mend any more-- EGYPT (interrupting). Could not you sometimes take gentlemen's work to illustrate by? L. Gentlemen's work is rarely so useful as yours, Egypt; and when it is useful, girls cannot easily understand it. DORA. I am sure we should understand it better than gentlemen understand about sewing. L. My dear, I hope I always speak modestly, and under correction, when I touch upon matters of the kind too high for me; and besides, I never intend to speak otherwise than respectfully of sewing;--though you always seem to think I am laughing at you. In all seriousness, illustrations from sewing are those which Neith likes me best to use; and which young ladies ought to like everybody to use. What do you think the beautiful word "wife" comes from? DORA (tossing her head). I don't think it is a particularly beautiful word. L. Perhaps not. At your ages you may think "bride" sounds better; but wife's the word for wear, depend upon it. It is the great word in which the English and Latin languages conquer the French and the Greek. I hope the French will some day get a word for it, yet, instead of their dreadful "femme." But what do you think it comes from? DORA. I never did think about it. L. Nor you, Sibyl? SIBYL. No; I thought it was Saxon, and stopped there. L. Yes, but the great good of Saxon words is, that they usually do mean something. Wife means "weaver". You have all the right to call yourselves little "housewives," when you sew neatly. DORA. But I don t think we want to call ourselves 'little housewives'. L. You must either be house-wives, or house-moths; remember that. In the deep sense, you must either weave men's fortunes, and embroider them, or feed upon, and bring them to decay. You had better let me keep my sewing illustration, and help me out with it. DORA. Well, we'll hear it, under protest. L. You have heard it before, but with reference to other matters. When it is said, "no man putteth a piece of new cloth on an old garment, else it taketh from the old," does it not mean that the new piece tears the old one away at the sewn edge? DORA. Yes; certainly. L. And when you mend a decayed stuff with strong thread, does not the whole edge come away sometimes, when it tears again? DORA. Yes; and then it is of no use to mend it any more.