"
"The present revolt of woman," continued the Minor Poet, "will be
looked back upon by the historian of the future as one of the chief
factors in our social evolution. The 'home'--the praises of which
we still sing, but with gathering misgiving--depended on her
willingness to live a life of practical slavery. When Adam delved
and Eve span--Adam confining his delving to the space within his own
fence, Eve staying her spinning-wheel the instant the family hosiery
was complete--then the home rested upon the solid basis of an actual
fact. Its foundations were shaken when the man became a citizen and
his interests expanded beyond the domestic circle. Since that
moment woman alone has supported the institution. Now she, in her
turn, is claiming the right to enter the community, to escape from
the solitary confinement of the lover's castle. The 'mansions,'
with common dining-rooms, reading-rooms, their system of common
service, are springing up in every quarter; the house, the villa, is
disappearing. The story is the same in every country. The separate
dwelling, where it remains, is being absorbed into a system.
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