A Treatise on Domestic Economy | Page 2

all those rules of thrift and economy that will make
domestic duty easy and pleasant.
To promote this object, the writer prepared this volume as a text-book
for female schools. It has been examined by the Massachusetts Board
of Education, and been deemed worthy by them to be admitted as a part
of the Massachusetts School Library.
It has also been adopted as a text-book in some of our largest and most
popular female schools, both at the East and West.
The following, from the pen of Mr. George B. Emmerson, one of the
most popular and successful teachers in our country, who has
introduced this work as a text-book in his own school, will exhibit the
opinion of one who has formed his judgment from experience in the
use of the work:
"It may be objected that such things cannot be taught by books. Why
not? Why may not the structure of the human body, and the laws of

health deduced therefrom, be as well taught as the laws of natural
philosophy? Why are not the application of these laws to the
management of infants and young children as important to a woman as
the application of the rules of arithmetic to the extraction of the cube
root? Why may not the properties of the atmosphere be explained, in
reference to the proper ventilation of rooms, or exercise in the open air,
as properly as to the burning of steel or sodium? Why is not the human
skeleton as curious and interesting as the air-pump; and the action of
the brain, as the action of a steam-engine? Why may not the healthiness
of different kinds of food and drink, the proper modes of cooking, and
the rules in reference to the modes and times of taking them, be
discussed as properly as rules of grammar, or facts in history? Are not
the principles that should regulate clothing, the rules of cleanliness, the
advantages of early rising and domestic exercise, as readily
communicated as the principles of mineralogy, or rules of syntax? Are
not the rules of Jesus Christ, applied to refine domestic manners and
preserve a good temper, as important as the abstract principles of ethics,
as taught by Paley, Wayland, or Jouffroy? May not the advantages of
neatness, system, and order, be as well illustrated in showing how they
contribute to the happiness of a family, as by showing how they add
beauty to a copy-book, or a portfolio of drawings? Would not a teacher
be as well employed in teaching the rules of economy, in regard to time
and expenses, or in regard to dispensing charity, as in teaching double,
or single entry in bookkeeping? Are not the principles that should guide
in constructing a house, and in warming and ventilating it properly, as
important to young girls as the principles of the Athenian
Commonwealth, or the rules of Roman tactics? Is it not as important
that children should be taught the dangers to the mental faculties, when
over-excited on the one hand, or left unoccupied on the other, as to
teach them the conflicting theories of political economy, or the
speculations of metaphysicians? For ourselves, we have always found
children, especially girls, peculiarly ready to listen to what they saw
would prepare them for future duties. The truth, that education should
be a preparation for actual, real life, has the greatest force with
children. The constantly-recurring inquiry, 'What will be the use of this
study?' is always satisfied by showing, that it will prepare for any duty,
relation, or office which, in the natural course of things, will be likely

to come.
"We think this book extremely well suited to be used as a text-book in
schools for young ladies, and many chapters are well adapted for a
reading book for children of both sexes."
To this the writer would add the testimony of a lady who has used this
work with several classes of young girls and young ladies. She
remarked that she had never known a school-book that awakened more
interest, and that some young girls would learn a lesson in this when
they would study nothing else. She remarked, also, that when reciting
the chapter on the construction of houses, they became greatly
interested in inventing plans of their own, which gave an opportunity to
the teacher to point out difficulties and defects. Had this part of
domestic economy been taught in schools, our land would not be so
defaced with awkward, misshapen, inconvenient, and, at the same time,
needlessly expensive houses, as it now is.
Although the writer was trained to the care of children, and to perform
all branches of domestic duty, by some of the best of housekeepers,
much in these pages is offered, not as the result of her own experience,