And
if a priesthood should arise hereafter, whose calling was to teach not
religion but irreligion, not the good news that there is a good God, and
that we can know Him; but the bad news that there is no God, or, if there
is, we cannot know Him; then would that priesthood find it necessary to
appeal like all other priesthoods, to the women, and to teach them how to
teach their children.
But more. It is not religion only which must be taught through the wives
and mothers, but sound science also, and sound economy. If you intend
(as I trust some here intend) to teach the labouring classes those laws
of health and life, on which depend the comfort, the wholesomeness, often
the decency and the morality of the poor man's home, then you must teach
those laws first to the house-mother, who brings the children into the
world, and brings them up, who puts them to bed at night, and prepares
their food by day. If you wish to teach habits of thrift, and sound
notions of economy to the labouring classes, you must teach them first to
the housewife, who has to make the weekly earnings cover, if possible,
the week's expenses.
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