than is compatible with the general
convenience of the family, introducing with it an expense in dress, and
a dissipation of time, from which it suffers in various ways. Not the
least of these is the neglect of parental instruction, which it is
attempted to supply by sending the children at an improper age to
school; the girls where they had better never go, and the boys where
they get but little good, and perhaps are all the worse for mending.
Social intercourse is not improved by parade, but quite the contrary;
real friends, and the pleasantest kind of acquaintance, those who like
to be social, are repulsed by it. The failure therefore is general,
involving the loss of nearly all that is valuable in society, by an
abortive attempt to become fashionable.

_Setting out a Table._

The direction of a Table is no inconsiderable part of a lady's concern,
as it involves judgment in expenditure, respectability of appearance,
the comfort of her husband, and those who partake of their hospitality.
It is true that the mode of covering a table, and providing for the
guests, is merely a matter of taste, materially different in a variety
of instances; yet nothing can be more ruinous of real comfort than the
too common custom of making a profusion and a parade, unsuited not only
to the circumstances of the host, but to the number of the guests; or
more fatal to true hospitality than the multiplicity of dishes which
luxury has made fashionable at the tables of the great, the wealthy, and
the ostentatious, who are often neither great, nor wealthy, nor wise.
Such excessive preparation, instead of being a compliment to the party
invited, is nothing better than an indirect offence, conveying a tacit
insinuation that it is absolutely necessary to provide such delicacies
to bribe the depravity of their palates, when we desire the pleasure of
their company, and that society must be purchased on dishonourable terms
before it can be enjoyed. When twice as much cooking is undertaken as
there are servants, or conveniences in the kitchen to do it properly,
dishes must be dressed long before the dinner hour, and stand by
spoiling; and why prepare for eight or ten more than is sufficient for
twenty or thirty visitors? 'Enough is as good as a feast;' and a prudent
provider, avoiding what is extravagant and superfluous, may entertain
her friends three times as often, and ten times as well.

Perhaps there are few incidents in which the respectabi