Il n’est pas bien honnête, et pour beaucoup de causes, Qu’une femme étudie et sache tant de choses. Former aux bonnes mœurs l’esprit de ses enfans, Faire aller son ménage, avoir l’œil sur ses gens, Et régler la dépense avec économie, Doit être son étude et sa philosophie. Nos pères sur ce point étaient gens bien sensés, Qui disaient qu’une femme en sait toujours assez Quand la capacité de son esprit se hausse A connaître un pourpoint d’avec un haut de chausse. Les leurs ne lisaient point, mais elles vivaient bien, Leurs ménages étaient tout leur docte entretien; Et leurs livres, un dé, du fil, et des aiguilles, Dont elles travaillaient au trousseau de leurs filles. Les femmes d’à present sont bien loin de ces mœurs, Elles veulent écrire, et devenir auteurs.—MOLIERE. There is no moment more trying to the mistress of a house than that in which the ladies first gather round the fire when they leave the dining-room. If a silence ensues, or if the conversation is begun in too low a tone of voice, that voiceless utterance which denotes and produces shyness, the die is cast—the character of the evening is stamped. Unfortunately Mrs. Heckfield, in her anxiety to be attentive, just as the ladies were crowding round the fire, asked them if they would not “take a seat,” and was sufficiently wanting in tact to allow them to settle themselves, in something very nearly approaching a circle, and a circle some way removed from the fire. In vain were the sofas stuffed with cushions, in vain were the ottomans as low as possible, and the arm-chairs so deep that no one under seven feet high could reach the back of them; in vain were all the tables so orthodoxly covered with snuff boxes under glass cases, miniatures in beautiful frames, French souvenirs with liliputian artificial flowers, annuals in every variety of binding, prose albums, poetry albums, drawing albums, china cups and Sevres vases, Dresden inkstands, and mother-of-pearl letter pressers, till it was impossible to find a spot on which a cup could be safely deposited; all these appliances and means to boot will not produce ease if it is wanting in the mind of the hostess. From which, by the by, might be deduced the superiority of mind over matter.