text:  In their hearing the mightiest interests were discussed--the subtle questions of the Academy propounded--the snares of the sophist exposed--the sublime thoughts and actions of heroes and demigods embodied in the most glorious poetry were daily exhibited to their view; while the wife occupied solely with petty cares and trifling objects without charms to win the love or dignity to command the esteem of her husband was condemned within the narrow walls of the Gynaeceum (of which the drawings of Herculaneum and Pompeii may enable us to form some notion ) to drag out the insipid round of her monotonous existence