The husband of “a superior woman” is usually much to be pitied, but surely the reason is that the woman is not superior enough.  She has capabilities and knowledge, and has learnt to value them, and is right in so doing, but she has not learnt the next page of Life’s Lesson Book, which is, the relative insignificance of her own acquirements, and the value of the qualities she has not got,—­qualities which her husband very likely possesses, only he has not the feminine power of expression.  How often a woman’s seeming superiority lies in this gift of words, which, as George Eliot says, is in her, “often a fatal aptitude for expressing what she neither believes nor feels.”  The man often silently knows, and lives, the noble sentiment, which the woman fluently utters, imagining herself to be its discoverer and prophet.  Another point to remember in this matter is that women are apt to overvalue intellect, perhaps because it is only during the last few years that intellectual advantages have been within their reach.  Sydney Smith looked forward hopefully to a day when French would be a common accomplishment, and women would be no more vain of possessing it than of having two arms and legs!  Perhaps when, not only French, but still higher education becomes more generally diffused, we may learn the proportions, and realize that, though intellect is a good gift, many others are to be preferred before it.  The more we know, the wider our horizon grows, and the smaller we ourselves seem relatively to the wider expanse around us.  “Man’s first word is, No:  his second, Yes:  and his third is, No, again.”  We start with ignorance and are necessarily humble, in a negative way:  then comes the schoolroom, when we prize highly the knowledge so laboriously acquired; and then comes the schoolroom of life, which sends us back again to humility, though of a larger and nobler kind.

(The tendency of the day is to overvalue education, rather than the reverse, so I need not dwell on the necessity laid upon the modern Virtuous Woman, of developing her intellect, more than Solomon required from his ideal.)

“She maketh fine linen and selleth it.”  She is reliable and punctual, and clear in business arrangements.  How much charitable work of the present day requires good arithmetic and a clear business head!  She will not miss her train, and she will write a clear legible hand, especially when names and addresses are concerned.  A good handwriting is a matter of patience and self-discipline, and a truly unselfish person would force herself to acquire it, because she can thereby, in small ways, be of so much use and comfort to others.

“She shall rejoice in time to come.”  She is not likely to do this, unless she learns to rejoice in the present also.  Rejoicing is a habit like most other virtues, and if we fail in this, it is probably ourselves and not our circumstances that need to be changed.  “The aids to happiness are all within,” and the Virtuous Woman will take life bravely and cheerfully, like the heroes of old, and will think it a poor thing to pity herself and to go about with a long face.  She