"
The common well-being of men, women, and children depends upon attention
to what at first sight may appear comparatively trivial matters. And
unless these small matters be attended to, comfort in person, mind, and
feeling is absolutely impossible. The physical satisfaction of a child,
for example, depends upon attention to its feeding, clothing, and
washing. These are the commonest of common things, and yet they are of
the most essential importance. If the child is not properly fed and
clothed, it will grow up feeble and ill-conditioned. And as the child
is, so will the man be.
Grown people cannot be comfortable without regular attention to these
common matters. Every one needs, and ought to have, comfort at home; and
comfort is the united product of cleanliness, thrift, regularity,
industry,--in short, a continuous performance of duties, each in itself
apparently trivial. The cooking of a potato, the baking of a loaf, the
mending of a shirt, the darning of a pair of stockings, the making of a
bed, the scrubbing of a floor, the washing and dressing of a baby, are
all matters of no great moment; but a woman ought to know how to do
these, before the management of a household, however poor, is entrusted
to her.
"Why," asked Lord Ashburton in a lecture to the students of the Wolvesey
training-schools, "why was one mother of a family a better economist
than another? Why could one live in abundance where another starved?
Why, in similar dwellings, were the children of one parent healthy, of
another puny and ailing? Why could this labourer do with ease a task
that would kill his fellow? It was not luck nor chance that decided
those differences; it was the patient observation of nature that
suggested to some gifted minds rules for their guidance which had
escaped the heedlessness of others.
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