about
choice food and about cookery, we very soon get _tired_ of heavy or
burnt bread and of spoiled joints of meat: we bear them for a time, or
for two, perhaps; but, about the third time, we lament _inwardly_; about
the fifth time, it must be an extraordinary honey-moon that will keep us
from complaining: if the like continue for a month or two, we begin to
_repent_, and then adieu to all our anticipated delights. We discover,
when it is too late, that we have not got a help-mate, but a burden;
and, the fire of love being damped, the unfortunately educated creature,
whose parents are more to blame than she is, is, unless she resolve to
learn her duty, doomed to lead a life very nearly approaching to that of
misery; for, however considerate the husband, he never can esteem her as
he would have done, had she been skilled and able in domestic affairs.

118. The mere _manual_ performance of domestic labours is not, indeed,
absolutely necessary in the female head of the family of professional
men, such as lawyers, doctors, and parsons; but, even here, and also in
the case of great merchants and of gentlemen living on their fortunes,
surely the head of the household ought to be able to give directions as
to the purchasing of meat, salting meat, making bread, making preserves
of all sorts, and ought to see the things done, or that they be done.
She ought to take care that food be well cooked, drink properly prepared
and kept; that there be always a sufficient supply; that there be good
living without waste; and that, in her department, nothing shall be seen
inconsistent with the rank, station, and character of her husband, who,
if he have a skilful and industrious wife, will, unless he be of a
singularly foolish turn, gladly leave all these things to her absolute
dominion, controlled only by the extent of the whole expenditure, of
which he must be the best, and, indeed, the sole, judge.

119. But, in a farmer's or a tradesman's family, the _manual
performance_ is absolutely necessary, whether there be servants or not.
No one knows how to teach another so well as one who has done, and can
do, the thing himself. It was said of a famous French commander, that,
in attacking an enemy, he did not say to his men '_go_ on,' but '_come_
on;' and, whoever have well observed the movements of servants, must
know what a prodigious difference there is in the effect of the words,
_go_ and _come_. A very good rule would be, to have nothing