to eat, in a
farmer's or tradesman's house, that the mistress did not know how to
prepare and to cook; no pudding, tart, pie or cake, that she did not
know how to make. Never fear the toil to her: exercise is good for
health; and without _health_ there is _no beauty_; a sick beauty may
excite pity, but pity is a short-lived passion. Besides, what is the
labour in such a case? And how many thousands of ladies, who loll away
the day, would give half their fortunes for that sound sleep which the
stirring house-wife seldom fails to enjoy.

120. Yet, if a young farmer or tradesman _marry_ a girl, who has been
brought up to _play music_, to what is called _draw_, to _sing_, to
waste paper, pen and ink, in writing long and half romantic letters, and
to see shows, and plays, and read novels; if a young man do _marry_ such
an unfortunate young creature, let him bear the consequences with
temper; let him be _just_; and justice will teach him to treat her with
great indulgence; to endeavour to cause her to learn her business as a
wife; to be patient with her; to reflect that he has taken her, being
apprised of her inability; to bear in mind, that he was, or seemed to
be, pleased with her showy and useless acquirements; and that, when the
gratification of his passion has been accomplished, he is unjust and
cruel and unmanly, if he turn round upon her, and accuse her of a want
of that knowledge, which he well knew that she did not possess.

121. For my part, I do not know, nor can I form an idea of, a more
unfortunate being than a girl with a mere boarding-school education, and
without a fortune to enable her to keep a servant, when married. Of what
_use_ are her accomplishments? Of what use her music, her drawing, and
her romantic epistles? If she be good in _her nature_, the first little
faint cry of her first baby drives all the tunes and all the landscapes
and all the Clarissa Harlowes out of her head for ever. I once saw a
very striking instance of this sort. It was a climb-over-the-wall match,
and I gave the bride away, at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, the
pair being as handsome a pair as ever I saw in my life. Beauty, however,
though in double quantity, would not pay the baker and butcher; and,
after an absence of little better than a year, I found the husband in
prison for debt; but I there found also his wife, with her baby, and
she, who had never, before her marriage, known what it was to get water
to wash her own h