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

and, when we have done this, and the event seems to come out wrong, we should never wish that we had decided otherwise. For it is the same as wishing that we had not followed the dictates of judgement and conscience. As this is a world designed for discipline and trial, untoward events are never to be construed as indications of the obliquity of our past decisions. But it is probable, that a great portion of the women of this Nation, cannot secure any such systematic mode of regulating their expenses. To such, the writer would propose one inquiry; cannot you calculate how much _time_ and _money_ you spend for what is merely ornamental, and not necessary, for yourself, your children, and your house? Cannot you compare this with the time and money you spend for intellectual and benevolent purposes? and will not this show the need of some change? In making this examination, is not this brief rule, deducible from the principles before laid down, the one which should regulate you? Every person does right, in spending _some_ portion of time and means in securing the conveniences and adornments of taste; but the amount should never exceed what is spent in securing our own moral and intellectual improvement, nor exceed what is spent in benevolent efforts to supply the physical and moral wants of our fellow-men. In making an examination on this subject, it is sometimes the case, that a woman will count among the _necessaries_ of life, all the various modes of adorning the person or house, practised in the circle in which she moves; and, after enumerating the many _duties_ which demand attention, counting these as a part, she will come to the conclusion, that she has no time, and but little money, to devote to personal improvement, or to benevolent enterprises. This surely is not in agreement with the requirements of the Saviour, who calls on us to seek for others, as well as ourselves, _first of all_, "the kingdom of God, and His righteousness." In order to act in accordance with the rule here presented,