A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School

in lateness. The question, then, is one which appeals to American women, as a matter of patriotism; as having a bearing on those great principles of democracy, which we conceive to be equally the principles of Christianity. Shall we form our customs on the principle that labor is degrading, and indolence genteel? Shall we assume, by our practice, that the interests of the great mass are to be sacrificed for the pleasures and honors of a privileged few? Shall we ape the customs of aristocratic lands, in those very practices which result from principles and institutions that we condemn? Shall we not rather take the place to which we are entitled, as the leaders, rather than the followers, in the customs of society, turn back the tide of aristocratic inroads, and carry through the whole, not only of civil and political, but of social and domestic, life, the true principles of democratic freedom and equality? The following considerations may serve to strengthen an affirmative decision. The first, relates to the health of a family. It is a universal law of physiology, that all living things flourish best in the light. Vegetables, in a dark cellar, grow pale and spindling,[H] and children, brought up in mines, are wan and stinted. This universal law, indicates the folly of turning day into night, thus losing the genial influence, which the light of day produces on all animated creation. There is another phenomenon in the physiology of Nature, which equally condemns this practice. It has been shown, that the purification of the blood, in the lungs, is secured, by the oxygen of the atmosphere absorbing its carbon and hydrogen. This combination forms carbonic acid and water, which are expired from our lungs into the atmosphere. Now all the vegetable world undergoes a similar process. In the light of day, all the leaves of vegetables absorb carbon and expire oxygen, thus supplying the air with its vital principle, and withdrawing the more deleterious element. But, when the light is withdrawn, this process is reversed, and all vegetables exhale carbonic acid, and inspire the oxygen of