self-reliance and self-control, who has no conception of accuracy, who has never acquired the habit of observation, and whose inventive genius and fertility of resource are expended in providing for the pleasures of a day. No improvement is possible in domestic service until every part of the household comes abreast of the progress made outside of the household; until the profession of housekeeping advances, like the so-called learned professions, through the accumulated wisdom of its individual members; until it ceases to be merely a passive recipient of the progress made elsewhere, and becomes on its own part an active, creative force. So much has progress up to this time been hindered by this inactivity in the household, and so great is the interdependence of all parts of the household, that it seems necessary to consider somewhat more in detail the causes of this condition. Inactivity in all household affairs has largely come from three things. It has in the first place been generally believed that a knowledge of all things pertaining to the house and home, unlike anything else, comes by instinct. It is assumed that the housekeeper is born with an intuitive knowledge of the right proportions of all materials to be used in cooking—this knowledge sometimes supplemented by an inherited cook-book and one purchased to aid a benevolent society soliciting funds for a charitable purpose. Her knowledge of the mental, moral, and physical training to be given her children is also to be gained through instinct and experience and the traditions handed down with regard to her own family. Instinct may sometimes be dormant, and experience prove an expensive schoolmaster through the exaction of heavy fees, but no other avenue of information has been open to her. Again, a very large proportion of all moneys spent for legitimate household purposes passes through the hands of housekeepers; yet no thorough investigation on an extensive scale has ever been carried on in regard to the expenditure made within or for the household. Few women when they assume the care of a household know the exact value of the household plant; the amount to be deducted each year for wear and tear; the relative proportions expended annually for rent, fuel, food, clothing, and service; the number of meals served and the approximate cost of each; the amount of profit, waste, or unproductiveness that results from all expenditures made. Every manufacturer, every business man knows the value of his plant, its increasing or diminishing value, the cost of materials used and of service employed. This information constitutes a part of the intellectual capital with which he begins business; he does not acquire it by instinct or tradition, but by careful and exact study of all the factors involved. It is difficult to see how a household can be successfully carried on except through the application of the same principles. If we turn to the