The various acquirements, which in the present day are deemed
essential to female education, rarely leave much time or inclination
for the humble study of household affairs; and it not unfrequently
happens, that the mistress of a family understands little more
concerning the dinner table over which she presides, than the graceful
arrangement of the flowers which adorn it; thus she is incompetent to
direct her servant, upon whose inferior judgment and taste she is
obliged to depend. She is continually subjected to impositions from
her ignorance of what is required for the dishes she selects, while a
lavish extravagance, or parsimonious monotony betrays her utter
inexperience in all the minute yet indispensible details of elegant
hospitality.

However, there are happily so many highly accomplished and
intellectual women, whose example proves the compatability of uniting
the cultivation of talents with domestic pursuits, that it would be
superfluous and presumptuous were we here to urge the propriety and
importance of acquiring habits of usefulness and household knowledge,
further than to observe that it is the unfailing attribute of a
superior mind to turn its attention occasionally to the lesser objects
of life, aware how greatly they contribute to its harmony and its
happiness.

The _Cuisine_ of a woman of refinement, like her dress or her
furniture, is distinguished, not for its costliness and profusion, but
for a pervading air of graceful originality. She is quite sensible
of the regard due to the reigning fashion of the day, but her own
tasteful discrimination is always perceptible. She instinctively
avoids every thing that is hackneyed, vulgar, and common place,
and uniformly succeeds in pleasing by the judicious novelties she