We mean the better economizing and preparation of human food, the waste of which at present, for want of the most ordinary culinary knowledge, is little short of scandalous. If that man is to be regarded as a benefactor of his species who makes two stalks of corn to grow where only one grew before, not less is she to be regarded as a public benefactor who economizes and turns to the best practical account the food-products of human skill and labour. The improved use of even our existing supply would be equivalent to an immediate extension of the cultivable acreage of our country--not to speak of the increase in health, economy, and domestic comfort. Were our female reformers only to turn their energies in this direction with effect, they would earn the gratitude of all households, and be esteemed as among the greatest of practical philanthropists.
NOTES
(1) Civic virtues, unless they have their origin and consecration in private and domestic virtues, are but the virtues of the theatre.
He who has not a loving heart for his child, cannot pretend to have any true love for humanity.--Jules Simon's LE DEVOIR.
(2) 'Levana; or, The Doctrine of Education.'
(3) Speaking of the force of habit, St. Augustine says in his 'Confessions' "My will the enemy held, and thence had made a chain for me, and bound me. For of a froward will was a lust made; and a lust served became custom; and custom not resisted became necessity. By which links, as it were, joined together (whence Icalled it a chain) a hard bondage held me enthralled."(4) Mr. Tufnell, in 'Reports of Inspectors of Parochial School Unions in England and Wales,' 1850.
(5) See the letters (January 13th, 16th, 18th, 20th, and 23rd, 1759), written by Johnson to his mother when she was ninety, and he himself was in his fiftieth year.--Crokers BOSWELL, 8vo. Ed. pp.
113, 114.
(6) Jared Sparks' 'Life of Washington.'
(7) Forster's 'Eminent British Statesmen' (Cabinet Cyclop.) vi. 8.
(8) The Earl of Mornington, composer of 'Here in cool grot,' &c.
(9) Robert Bell's 'Life of Canning,' p. 37.
(10) 'Life of Curran,' by his son, p. 4.
(11) The father of the Wesleys had even determined at one time to abandon his wife because her conscience forbade her to assent to his prayers for the then reigning monarch, and he was only saved from the consequences of his rash resolve by the accidental death of William III. He displayed the same overbearing disposition in dealing with his children; forcing his daughter Mehetabel to marry, against her will, a man whom she did not love, and who proved entirely unworthy of her.
(12) Goethe himself says--
"Vom Vater hab' ich die Statur, Des Lebens ernstes Fuhren;Von Mutterchen die Frohnatur Und Lust zu fabuliren."(13) Mrs. Grote's 'Life of Ary Scheffer,' p. 154.
(14) Michelet, 'On Priests, Women, and Families.'
(15) Mrs. Byron is said to have died in a fit of passion, brought on by reading her upholsterer's bills.
(16) Sainte-Beuve, 'Causeries du Lundi,' i. 23.
(17) Ibid. i. 22.
(18) Ibid. 1. 23.
(19) That about one-third of all the children born in this country die under five years of age, can only he attributable to ignorance of the natural laws, ignorance of the human constitution, and ignorance of the uses of pure air, pure water, and of the art of preparing and administering wholesome food. There is no such mortality amongst the lower animals.
