The development of our social life does not tend to lead woman back to the home and hearth, a state that fanatics on domesticity desire, and for which they clamor as the Jews in the desert clamored for the lost flesh-pots of Egypt. ~It demands the release of woman from her narrow sphere of domestic life, and her full participation in public life and the missions of civilization.~ Laveleye is right when he says[147]: “With the growth of what we call civilization, the feelings of piety toward family life decrease and its bonds become looser and have less influence on the actions of men. This fact is so general that it may be regarded as a law of social development.” Not only has the position of woman in the family changed, but also the position of son and daughter in their relation to the family. They have gradually obtained a degree of independence that was unheard of formerly. This is especially so in the United States, where young persons are educated to become self-reliant and independent to a far greater extent than in Europe. The dark sides that are incidental to this form of development also are not necessarily connected with it, but are rooted in the social conditions of our time. Bourgeois society does not produce any new and pleasing phenomena that do not have a dark side as well. As Fourier already pointed out with much perspicacity, all its progress is double-edged. Like Laveleye, Dr. Schaeffle also recognizes the changed nature of the modern family as a result of social development. He says:[148] “Thruout history we find the tendency of the family to return to its ~specific~ functions. The family abandons one provisionally and temporarily maintained function after another and, inasmuch as it only filled out the gaps in social functions, it yields to the independent institutions of law, order, power, divine service, teaching, industry, etc., as soon as such institutions are developed.” [147] Original Property. Chap. XX, Household Community. Leipsic, 1879. [148] Structure and Life of the Body Social. Vol. I. Tuebingen, 1878. 2.--The Intellectual Abilities of Women.