ot. All she acquired had been for
effect, and not for the purpose of every-day use; in which her
instruction and her pocket-handkerchief might be said to be of a piece.

CHAPTER XI.

And here I will digress a moment to make a single remark on a subject
of which popular feeling, in America, under the influence of popular
habits, is apt to take an exparte view. Accomplishments are derided as
useless, in comparison with what is considered household virtues. The
accomplishment of a cook is to make good dishes; of a seamstress to sew
well, and of a lady to possess refined tastes, a cultivated mind, and
agreeable and intellectual habits. The real VIRTUES of all are the
same, though subject to laws peculiar to their station; but it is a
very different thing when we come to the mere accomplishments. To
deride all the refined attainments of human skill denotes ignorance of
the means of human happiness, nor is it any evidence of acquaintance
with the intricate machinery of social greatness and a lofty
civilization. These gradations in attainments are inseparable from
civilized society, and if the skill of the ingenious and laborious is
indispensable to a solid foundation, without the tastes and habits of
the refined and cultivated, it never can be graceful or pleasing.

{exparte = should be "ex parte"--one-sided (Latin)}

Eudosia had some indistinct glimmerings of this fact, though it was not
often that she came to sound and discriminating decisions even in
matters less complicated. In the present instance she saw this truth
only by halves, and that, too, in its most commonplace aspect, as will
appear by the remark she made on the occasion.

"Then, Clara, as to the PRICE I have paid for this handkerchief," she
said, "you ought to remember what the laws of political economy lay
down on such subjects. I suppose your Pa makes you study political
economy, my dear?"

"Indeed he does not. I hardly know what it means."

"Well, that is singular; for Pa says, in this age of the world, it is
the only way to be rich. Now, it is by means of a trade in lots, and
political economy, generally, that he has succeeded so wonderfully;
for, to own the truth to you, Clara, Pa hasn't always been rich."

"No?" answered Clara, with a half-suppressed smile, she knowing the
fact already perfectly well.

"Oh, no--far from it--but we don't speak of this publicly, it being a
sort of disgrace in New York, you know, not to be thought worth at
le