But then these exceptions must belong to very rich and influential families. Some rare instances there are of tabooed women being restored to a certain measure of favour if they have succeeded to large fortunes and distinguished themselves by their great acquirements in transcendental geography. In such cases the influence of the transcendental professors has been enlisted on their side: and, as these professors are all-powerful in female society, they have succeeded in rehabilitating the lost characters of their protegées, but the restoration is never quite complete and their position in society is seldom quite comfortable."
In pondering over this curious trait in the character and conduct of the Colymbian ladies, I came at last to the conclusion that it and some other anomalies I observed must be owing to the want of regular occupation for the females of this strange society. I found that this absolute idleness, as far as useful work was concerned, was owing to their own determination not to work. Exemption from the cares and trials of life was claimed by them as a privilege of their sex. Attempts had been frequently made by agitators to compel women to take a fair share in active life. Books had been written and many lectures delivered, in which it was stated and attempted to be proved by the writers and lecturers, that there was nothing in the physical organization or in the intellectual endowments of women to incapacitate them from many of the occupations and employments engaged in by men; that a fair amount of the work and drudgery of life would be of benefit to women in physical and moral respects, that the mere difference of sex should not be alleged as a reason for throwing all the burdens on the
