And this is the age above all the past, when all the foundations of religious faith are being undermined, and all the most important principles of morals assailed. What is the conscientious woman to do, when the truth and authority of the Bible, the doctrine of immortality after death, and even the existence of a God, are attacked, not only in newspapers and books, but even in respectable pulpit ministries? Surely, if she is to be prepared by culture, argument, and reflection for any of her many responsibilities, it is for those she is to bear as the _religious educator of the family state_. This topic will be referred to more definitely in the chapters on the Training of Children and Care of Servants, and in a note at the close of this volume. It is for want of facilities for the proper scientific training of women for these multiform duties that they are so generally not educated to be healthy, or economical, or industrious, or properly qualified to be happy wives, or to train children and servants, or to preserve health in families and schools, or to practice a wise economy in the various departments of the family state. It is for want of such scientific training that the most important duties of the family, being disgraced and undervalued, are forsaken by the cultivated and refined, and, passing to the unskilled and vulgar, secure neither honorable social position nor liberal rewards. The poorest teacher of music, drawing, or French has higher position and reward than those who perform the most scientific, sacred, and difficult duties of the family state. The true remedy for this state of things is to provide as liberally for the scientific training of woman for her profession as men have provided for theirs. A wide-spread attempt is organizing for the establishment of institutions to cover this very ground of educating woman for the specific duties of her profession. But there are many thousands who are already beyond the reach of such instruction, and thousands of others who could never avail themselves of it; and certain it is, that a gathering together, in a compact volume like the present one, of many facts and ideas bearing upon these all-important topics, will be of great advantage to readers, especially in remote districts, far from the conveniences of cities. [Illustration] CHAPTER II. A HEALTHFUL AND ECONOMICAL HOUSE. At the head of this chapter is a sketch of what may be properly called a _Christian_ house; that is, a house contrived for the express purpose of enabling every member of a family to labor with the hands for the common good, and by modes at once healthful, economical, and tasteful. [Illustration: Fig. 7.]