A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at SchoolBeecher, Catharine Esther
General
A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School
Beecher, Catharine Esther
Home economics
Instead of attempting to give any very specific rules on this subject,
some modes of economizing time will be suggested. The most powerful of
all agencies, in this matter, is, that habit of system and order, in all
our pursuits, which has been already pointed out. It is probable, that a
regular and systematic employment of time, will enable a person to
accomplish thrice the amount of labor, that could otherwise be
performed.
Another mode of economizing time, is, by uniting several objects in one
employment. Thus, exercise, or charitable efforts, can be united with
social enjoyments, as is done in associations for sewing, or visiting
the poor. Instruction and amusement can also be combined. Pursuits like
music, gardening, drawing, botany, and the like, unite intellectual
improvement with amusement, social enjoyment, and exercise.
With housekeepers, and others whose employments are various and
desultory, much time can be saved by preparing employments for little
intervals of leisure. Thus, some ladies make ready, and keep in the
parlor, light work, to take up when detained there; some keep a book at
hand, in the nursery, to read while holding or sitting by a sleeping
infant. One of the most popular female poets of our Country very often
shows her friends, at their calls, that the thread of the knitting,
never need interfere with the thread of agreeable discourse.
It would be astonishing, to one who had never tried the experiment, how
much can be accomplished, by a little planning and forethought, in thus
finding employment for odd intervals of time.
But, besides economizing our own time, we are bound to use our influence
and example to promote the discharge of the same duty by others. A woman
is under obligations so to arrange the hours and pursuits of her family,
as to promote systematic and habitual industry; and if, by late
breakfasts, irregular hours for meals, and other hinderances of this
kind, she interferes with, or refrains from promoting regular industry
in, others, she is accountable to God for all the waste of time
consequent on her negligence. The mere example of system and industry,
in a housekeeper, has a wonderful influence in promoting the same
virtuous habit in others.
_On Economy in Expenses._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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