to do these things,
unless she have been _brought up_ to understand domestic affairs? How is
she to do these things, if she have been taught to think these matters
beneath her study? How is any man to expect her to do these things, if
she have been so bred up as to make her habitually look upon them as
worthy the attention of none but low and _ignorant_ women?

124. _Ignorant_, indeed! Ignorance consists in a want of knowledge of
those things which your calling or state of life naturally supposes you
to understand. A ploughman is not an _ignorant man_ because he does not
know how to read: if he knows how to plough, he is not to be called an
ignorant man; but, a wife may be justly called an ignorant woman, if she
does not know how to provide a dinner for her husband. It is cold
comfort for a hungry man, to tell him how delightfully his wife plays
and sings: lovers may live on very aerial diet; but husbands stand in
need of the solids; and young women may take my word for it, that a
constantly clean board, well cooked victuals, a house in order, and a
cheerful fire, will do more in preserving a husband's heart, than all
the '_accomplishments_,' taught in all the '_establishments_' in the
world.

125. GOOD TEMPER. This is a very difficult thing to ascertain
beforehand. Smiles are so cheap; they are so easily put on for the
occasion; and, besides, the frowns are, according to the lover's whim,
interpreted into the contrary. By '_good temper_,' I do not mean _easy
temper_, a serenity which nothing disturbs, for that is a mark of
laziness. _Sulkiness_, if you be not too blind to perceive it, is a
temper to be avoided by all means. A sulky man is bad enough; what,
then, must be a sulky woman, and that woman _a wife_; a constant inmate,
a companion day and night! Only think of the delight of sitting at the
same table, and sleeping in the same bed, for a week, and not exchange a
word all the while! Very bad to be scolding for such a length of time;
but this is far better than the sulks. If you have your eyes, and look
sharp, you will discover symptoms of this, if it unhappily exist. She
will, at some time or other, show it towards some one or other of the
family; or, perhaps, towards yourself; and you may be quite sure that,
in this respect, marriage will not mend her. Sulkiness arises from
capricious displeasure, displeasure not founded in reason. The party
takes offence unjustifiably; is unable to frame a complaint, and
ther