d; she
also produces from her basket three ready-made pin-cushions, four
ink-wipers, seven paper matches, and a paste-board watch-case; these are
welcomed with acclamations, and the youngest lady present deposits them
carefully on shelves, amid a prodigious quantity of similar articles.
She then produces her thimble, and asks for work; it is presented to
her, and the eight ladies all stitch together for some hours. Their talk
is of priests and of missions; of the profits of their last sale, of
their hopes from the next; of the doubt whether young Mr. This or young
Mr. That should receive the fruits of it to fit him out for Siberia; of
the very ugly bonnet seen at church on Sabbath morning; of the very
handsome preacher who performed on Sabbath afternoon; and of the very
large collection made on Sabbath evening. This lasts till three, when
the carriage again appears, and the lady and her basket return home; she
mounts to her chamber, carefully sets aside her bonnet and its
appurtenances, puts on her scalloped black silk apron, walks into the
kitchen to see that all is right, then into the parlour, where, having
cast a careful glance over the table prepared for dinner, she sits down,
work in hand, to await her spouse. He comes, shakes hands with her,
spits, and dines. The conversation is not much, and ten minutes suffices
for the dinner: fruit and toddy, the newspaper, and the work-bag
succeed. In the evening the gentleman, being a savant, goes to the
Wister Society, and afterwards plays a snug rubber at a neighbour's. The
lady receives at ten a young missionary and three members of the Dorcas
Society. And so ends her day."

A harmless day, after all! No doubt such days were spent by
Philadelphian ladies exactly as Mrs. Trollope describes them; no doubt
such days are possible in American society now, and, for that matter, in
English society also. But it is not less certain that then and now many
women in Philadelphia spent and spend their time with a wiser activity,
and more to the advantage of themselves and their fellow creatures. The
fault of the satirist is, that he reasons from particulars to generals,
whereas the sagacious observer will reason from generals to particulars.
The manners and customs, the idiosyncrasies of a class will probably be
the manners and customs and idiosyncrasies of most of its members; but
it by no means follows that from two or three individuals we can safely
predict the general characterist