American Woman's Home: Or, Principles of Domestic Science;: Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian HomesStowe, Harriet Beecher
Religion
American Woman's Home: Or, Principles of Domestic Science;: Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian Homes
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Home economics
Is it objected, How can we decide between superfluities and necessities,
in this list? It is replied, that we are not required to judge exactly,
in all cases. Our duty is, to use the means in our power to assist us
in forming a correct judgment; to seek the divine aid in freeing our
minds from indolence and selfishness; and then to judge, as well as
we can, in our endeavors rightly to apportion and regulate our expenses.
Many persons seem to feel that they are bound to do better than they
know how. But God is not so hard a master; and after we have used all
proper means to learn the right way, if we then follow it according
to our ability, we do wrong to feel misgivings, or to blame ourselves,
if results come out differently from what seems desirable.
The results of our actions, alone, can never prove as deserving of
blame. For men are often so placed that, owing to lack of intellect
or means, it is impossible for them to decide correctly. To use all
the means of knowledge within our reach, and then to judge, with a
candid and conscientious spirit, is all that God requires; and when
we have done this, and the event seems to come out wrong, we should
never wish that we had decided otherwise. For this would be the same
as wishing that we had not followed the dictates of judgment and
conscience. As this is a world designed for discipline and trial,
untoward events are never to be construed as indications of the
obliquity of our past decisions.
But it is probable that a great portion of the women of this nation
can not secure any such systematic mode of regulating their expenses.
To such, the writer would propose one inquiry: Can not you calculate
how much _time_ and _money_ you spend for what is merely ornamental, and
not necessary, for yourself, your children, and your house? Can not you
compare this with the time and money you spend for intellectual and
benevolent purposes? and will not this show the need of some change? In
making this examination, is not this brief rule, deducible from the
principles before laid down, the one which should regulate you? Every
person does right in spending some portion of time and means in securing
the conveniences and adornments of taste; but the amount should never
exceed what is spent in securing our own moral and intellectual
improvement, nor what is spent in benevolent efforts to supply the
physical and moral wants of our fellow-men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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