But every widow is not so unnatural, and I am willing to suppose the tradesman I am writing to shall be better married, and, therefore, I give over speaking to the woman’s side, and I will suppose the tradesman’s wife not to be above her quality, and willing to be made acquainted with her husband’s affairs, as well as to be helpful to him, if she can, as to be in a condition to be helpful to herself and her family, if she comes to have occasion.  But, then, the difficulty often lies on the other side the question, and the tradesman cares not to lay open his business to, or acquaint his wife with it; and many circumstances of the tradesman draw him into this snare; for I must call it a snare both to him and to her.

I. The tradesman is foolishly vain of making his wife a gentlewoman, and, forsooth, he will have her sit above in the parlour, and receive visits, and drink tea, and entertain her neighbours, or take a coach and go abroad; but as to the business, she shall not stoop to touch it; he has apprentices and journeymen, and there is no need of it.

II.  Some trades, indeed, are not proper for the women to meddle in, or custom has made it so, that it would be ridiculous for the women to appear in their shops; that is, such as linen and woollen drapers, mercers, booksellers, goldsmiths, and all sorts of dealers by commission, and the like—­custom, I say, has made these trades so effectually shut out the women, that, what with custom, and the women’s generally thinking it below them, we never, or rarely, see any women in those shops or warehouses.

III.  Or if the trade is proper, and the wife willing, the husband declines it, and shuts her out—­and this is the thing I complain of as an unjustice upon the woman.  But our tradesmen, forsooth, think it an undervaluing to them and to their business to have their wives seen in their shops—­that is to say, that, because other trades do not admit them, therefore they will not have their trades or shops thought less masculine or less considerable than others, and they will not have their wives be seen in their shops.

IV.  But there are two sorts of husbands more who decline acquainting their wives with their business; and those are, (1.) Those who are unkind, haughty, and imperious, who will not trust their wives, because they will not make them useful, that they may not value themselves upon it, and make themselves, as it were, equal to their husbands.  A weak, foolish, and absurd suggestion! as if the wife were at all exalted by it, which, indeed, is just the contrary, for the woman is rather humbled and made a servant by it:  or, (2.) The other sort are those who are afraid their wives should be let into the grand secret of all—­namely, to know that they are bankrupt, and undone, and worth nothing.