It is a different sort of society that she then needs. It is not a boy-and-girl society, with its crude ways, and its adolescent ideas of life. It is the society of earnest, cultured, and public-spirited men and women, each of whom is adding something to the general store of interest and ideals; each of whom is doing some phase of social work, according to his own talent and opportunity.
When a mother steps out into life in this large way, makes education and training tributary to her mother-life, and does not stop growing intellectually or spiritually,--her charm as a woman increases, instead of diminishes, every year of her married life. Her looks mark her everywhere as a supremely happy woman, and she goes out into the world marked with that strange, deep, grand impress of motherhood and womanhood, which has always made the true woman not only a working-mother, but a love-crowned queen!
These and many other thoughts flit over one"s mind in looking at any phase of work, or any piece of work. In the right choice of work lies the fullest use of one"s capacities; in the right conditions of work lies the freest play of one"s energies; in the right spirit of work lies the way of one"s lasting happiness, and the foretaste of eternal joys.
Thus the world is seen to consist of great cycles of workers, rising in tiers one above another. Those who do not work are quickly cut out from all partic.i.p.ation in race-progress and in race-delights; those who work earnestly, but blindly, have their small reward. But those who work with spiritual energy and enthusiasm are weaving their handiwork into the very fibre of the universal frame. It is for these spiritual workers that the great eagerness of life is undying; for them there is no shadow of fatigue; for them there is the joy of mastery and accomplishment; for them the peace of soul that comes from the triumphant achievement of one"s mission to mankind!
THE END