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

to these and various other duties, we are to give an account to our Creator and final Judge. Instead of attempting to give any very specific rules on this subject, some modes of economizing time will be suggested. The most powerful of all agencies, in this matter, is, that habit of system and order, in all our pursuits, which has been already pointed out. It is probable, that a regular and systematic employment of time, will enable a person to accomplish thrice the amount of labor, that could otherwise be performed. Another mode of economizing time, is, by uniting several objects in one employment. Thus, exercise, or charitable efforts, can be united with social enjoyments, as is done in associations for sewing, or visiting the poor. Instruction and amusement can also be combined. Pursuits like music, gardening, drawing, botany, and the like, unite intellectual improvement with amusement, social enjoyment, and exercise. With housekeepers, and others whose employments are various and desultory, much time can be saved by preparing employments for little intervals of leisure. Thus, some ladies make ready, and keep in the parlor, light work, to take up when detained there; some keep a book at hand, in the nursery, to read while holding or sitting by a sleeping infant. One of the most popular female poets of our Country very often shows her friends, at their calls, that the thread of the knitting, never need interfere with the thread of agreeable discourse. It would be astonishing, to one who had never tried the experiment, how much can be accomplished, by a little planning and forethought, in thus finding employment for odd intervals of time. But, besides economizing our own time, we are bound to use our influence and example to promote the discharge of the same duty by others. A woman is under obligations so to arrange the hours and pursuits of her family, as to promote systematic and habitual industry; and if, by late breakfasts, irregular hours for meals, and other hinderances of this kind, she interferes with, or refrains from promoting regular industry in, others, she