him--"execute their well ordered plan, as
an indispensable duty, but not as a superlative merit. They have too
much sense to omit it, but they have too much taste to talk of it. It is
their business, not their boast. The effect is produced, but the hand
which accomplishes it is not seen. The mechanism is set at work, but it
is behind the scenes. The beauty is visible, the labor is kept out of
sight."

"The misfortune is," said Mr. Stanley, "that people are apt to fancy
that judgment is a faculty only to be exercised on great occasions;
whereas it is one that every hour is calling into exercise. There are
certain habits which, though they appear inconsiderable when examined
individually, are yet of no small importance in the aggregate.
Exactness, punctuality, and other minor virtues, contribute more than
many are aware, to promote and to facilitate the exercise of the higher
qualities. I would not erect them into a magnitude beyond their real
size; as persons are too apt to do who are _only_ punctual, and are
deficient in the higher qualities; but by the regular establishment of
these habits in a family, it is inconceivable to those who have not made
the experiment, how it saves, how it amplifies time, that canvas upon
which all the virtues must be wrought. It is incredible how an orderly
division of the day gives apparent rapidity to the wings of time, while
a stated devotion of the hour to its employment really lengthens life.
It lengthens it by the traces which solid occupation leaves behind it:
while it prevents tediousness by affording, with the successive change,
the charm of novelty, and keeping up an interest which would flag, if
any one employment were too long pursued. Now all these arrangements of
life, these divisions of time, and these selections and appropriations
of the business to the hour, come within the department of the lady. And
how much will the cares of a man of sense be relieved, if he choose a
wife who can do all this for him!"

"In how many of my friends' houses," said Mr. Carlton, "have I observed
the contrary habits produce contrary effects! A young lady bred in total
ignorance of family management, transplanted from the house of her
father, where she has learned nothing, to that of her husband, where she
is expected to know every thing, disappoints a prudent man: his
affection may continue, but his esteem will be diminished; and with his
happiness, his attachment to home will be proportiona