Without attempting any such systematic employment of time, and carrying
it out, so far as they can control circumstances, most women are rather
driven along by the daily occurrences of life; so that, instead of
being the intelligent regulators of their own time, they are the mere
sport of circumstances. There is nothing which so distinctly marks the
difference between weak and strong minds as the question, whether they
control circumstances or circumstances control them.
It is very much to be feared, that the apportionment of time actually
made by most women exactly inverts the order required by reason and
Christianity. Thus, the furnishing a needless variety of food, the
conveniences of dwellings, and the adornments of dress, often take a
larger portion of time than is given to any other object. Next after
this, comes intellectual improvement; and, last of all, benevolence
and religion.
It may be urged, that it is indispensable for most persons to give
more time to earn a livelihood, and to prepare food, raiment, and
dwellings, than, to any other object. But it may be asked, how much
of the time, devoted to these objects, is employed in preparing
varieties of food not necessary, but rather injurious, and how much
is spent for those parts of dress and furniture not indispensable, and
merely ornamental? Let a woman subtract from her domestic employments
all the time given to pursuits which are of no use, except as they
gratify a taste for ornament, or minister increased varieties to tempt
the appetite, and she will find that much which she calls "domestic
duty," and which prevents her attention to intellectual, benevolent,
and religious objects, should be called by a very different name.
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