he best educated and most wealthy
classes, who are bringing up their daughters, not only to know how to
do, but actually to do, all kinds of domestic work. The writer knows
young ladies, who are daughters of men of wealth and standing, and who
are among the most accomplished in their sphere, who have for months
been sent to work with a mantuamaker, to acquire a practical knowledge
of her occupation, and who have at home learned to perform all kinds of
domestic labor.

And let the young women of this Nation find, that Domestic Economy is
placed, in schools, on equal or superior ground to Chemistry,
Philosophy, and Mathematics, and they will blush to be found ignorant of
its first principles, as much as they will to hesitate respecting the
laws of gravity, or the composition of the atmosphere. But, as matters
are now conducted, many young ladies know how to make oxygen and
hydrogen, and to discuss questions of Philosophy or Political Economy,
far better than they know how to make a bed and sweep a room properly;
and they can "construct a diagram" in Geometry, with far more skill than
they can make the simplest article of female dress.

It may be urged, that the plan suggested by the writer, in the previous
pages, would make such a book as this needless; for young ladies would
learn all these things at home, before they go to school. But it must be
remembered, that the plan suggested cannot fully be carried into effect,
till such endowed institutions, as the one described, are universally
furnished. This probably will not be done, till at least one generation
of young women are educated. It is only on the supposition that a young
lady can, at fourteen or fifteen years of age, enter such an
institution, and continue there three years, that it would be easy to
induce her to remain, during all the previous period, at home, in the
practice of Domestic Economy, and the limited course of study pointed
out. In the present imperfect, desultory, varying, mode of female
education, where studies are begun, changed, partially learned, and
forgotten, it requires nearly all the years of a woman's youth, to
acquire the intellectual education now demanded. While this state of
things continues, the only remedy is, to introduce Domestic Economy as a
study at school.

It is hoped that these considerations will have weight, not only with
parents and teachers, but with young ladies themselves, and that all
will unite their influence to intr