Giving Is Not At All

All Sorts Of Articles And Letters Appear In The Papers About Women. Profound Questions Are Raised Concerning Them. Should They Smoke? Should They Work? Vote? Marry? Exist? Are Not Their Skirts Too Short, Or Their Sleeves? Have They A Sense Of Humor, Of Honor, Of Direction? Are Spinsters Superfluous? But How Seldom Similar Inquiries Are Propounded About Men.

The Very Utterness Of The Crash And Ruin, The Desperation Of The Case, Might Be Its Hope. On Ruins One Can Begin To Build. Anyhow, Looking Out From Ruins One Clearly Sees; There Are No Obstructing Walls.

As To The Family, I Have Never Understood How That Fits In With The Other Ideals --or, Indeed, Why It Should Be An Ideal At All. A Group Of Closely Related Persons Living Under One Roof; It Is A Convenience, Often A Necessity, Sometimes A Pleasure, Sometimes The Reverse; But Who First Exalted It As Admirable, An Almost Religious Ideal?

[religion Is A] Primitive Insurance Against Disaster. ... Originally Religion Was Merely A Function Of The Self-preservative Instinct. Offer Sacrifices To The Gods And Save Your Crops. And Even Christianity, After All, Insures Heavily Against The Flaws In This Life By Belief In Another.

How Agreeable To Watch, From The Other Side Of The High Stile, This Mighty Creature, This Fat Bull Of Bashan, Snorting, Champing, Pawing The Earth, Lashing The Tail, Breathing Defiance At Heaven And At Me ... His Heart Hot With Hate, Unable To Climb A Stile.