Unveiling a Parallel: A RomanceJones, Alice Ilgenfritz
Science
Unveiling a Parallel: A Romance
Jones, Alice Ilgenfritz
Feminist fiction; Mars (Planet) -- Fiction; Science fiction; Utopian fiction
This was a woman who wrote monthly articles on chemistry and botany
for one of the leading scientific journals. She was a middle-aged
woman and unmarried, who did not wish to live alone, who abhorred
"boarding," and who had found just such a comfortable nest in Clytia's
home as suited all her needs and desires. Of course she did not slave
in the kitchen all day long, and her position did not debar her from
the best and most intelligent society, nor cut her off from the
pleasure and privileges that sweeten life. She brought her scientific
knowledge to the preparation of the food she set before us, and took
as much pride in the results of her skill as an inventor takes in his
appliances. And such wholesome, delicious, well-cooked dishes I have
never eaten elsewhere. Clytia believed in intelligently prepared food,
as she believed in intelligent instruction for her children; she would
have thought it a crime to set an ignorant person over her kitchen.
And this woman of whom I am speaking knew that she held a place of
honor and trust, and she filled it not only with dignity but
lovingness. She had some younger women to assist her, whom she was
instructing in the science and the art of cooking, and who would
by-and-by take responsible positions themselves. These women, or
girls, assisted also in the housekeeping, which was the most perfect
system in point of cleanliness, order and beauty that it is possible
to conceive of in a home; because skill, honesty and conscientiousness
enter into every detail of the life of these people. The body is held
in honor, and its needs are respected. Life is sacred, and physical
sins,--neglect or infringement of the laws of health,--are classed in
the same category with moral transgressions. In fact, the same
principles and the same mathematical rules apply in the Three Natures
of Man,--refined of course to correspond with the ascending scale from
the lowest to the highest, from the physical to the spiritual. But so
closely are the Three allied that there are no dividing lines,--there
is no point where the Mind may say, "Here my responsibility ends," or
where the Body may affirm, "I have only myself to please." Day by day
these truths became clear to me. There was nothing particularly new in
anything that I heard,--indeed it was all singularly familiar, in
sound. But the wonder was, that the things we idealize, and theorize
about, they accept literally, and absorb into their lives. They have
made living facts of our profoundest philosophy and our sublimest
poetry. Are we then too philosophical, too poetical,--and not
practical? A good many centuries have rolled up their records and
dropped them into eternity since we were given the simple, wonderful
lesson, "Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap,"--and we have
not learned it yet! St. Paul's voice rings through the Earth from age
to age, "Work out your own salvation," and we do not comprehend. These
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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