Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/51

Rh allusion has already been made to domestic duties. But their importance requires some more particular reference. At the outset, it may be as well to notice a singular, but very prevalent error, which has, strangely enough, crept into the minds of a great many, especially those who have acquired some literary taste, and have imbibed the modes of thinking of a certain philosophical school of literary ladies. This error lies in the notion that there is something in domestic duties, that, if not actually degrading to a refined and intelligent woman, is rather below the plane of her true social sphere. The consequence is, that to housekeepers, and nurses, and cooks, are given up, not only the actual doing of all that pertains to the household economy; but their intelligence, such as it is, and their government, pervade the whole, instead of the intelligence and government of the true mistress and head of the family.

Men who not only see, but deeply feel, the evils arising from this error, and who strongly