ur large towns--where one-half of all
that are born perish before they reach their fifth year? If women, as
well as men, knew something of the laws of healthy living, about the
nature of the atmosphere, how its free action upon the blood is
necessary to health--of the laws of ventilation, cleanliness, and
nutrition,--we cannot but think that the moral, not less than the
physical condition of the human beings committed to their charge, would
be greatly improved and promoted.

Were anything like a proper attention given to common things, there
would not be such an amount of discomfort, disease, and mortality
amongst the young. But we accustom people to act as if there were no
such provisions as natural laws. If we violate them, we do not escape
the consequences because we have been ignorant of their mode of
operation. We have been provided with intelligence that we might _know_
them; and if society keep its members blind and ignorant, the evil
consequences are inevitably reaped. Thus tens of thousands perish for
lack of knowledge of even the smallest, and yet most necessary
conditions of right living.

Women have also need to be taught the important art of domestic economy.
If they do not earn the family income, at least they have to spend the
money earned; and their instruction ought to have a view to the spending
of that money wisely. For this purpose, a knowledge of arithmetic is
absolutely necessary. Some may say, "What use can a woman have for
arithmetic?" But when men marry, they soon find this out. If the woman
who has a household to manage be innocent of addition and
multiplication; and if she fail to keep a record of her income or
expenditure, she will, before long, find herself in great trouble. She
will find that she cannot make the ends meet, and then run into debt. If
she spend too much on dress, she will have too little for food or
education. She will commit extravagances in one direction or another,
and thus subject her household to great discomfort. She may also bring
her husband into trouble through the debts she has contracted, and make
a beginning of his misfortunes and sometimes of his ruin.

Much might be said in favour of household management, and especially in
favour of improved cookery. Ill-cooked meals is a source of discomfort
in many families. Bad cooking is waste,--waste of money and loss of
comfort. Whom God has joined in matrimony, ill-cooked joints and
ill-boiled potatoes have very often