WEST OXFORD SOCIETY. 95 



We think, too, there is a specific utility in -works of art, and in 

 the exercise of taste, even in the ordinary avocations of domestic 

 life. We most devoutly believe that in the rearing and training of 

 families, that it is bad economy to have in view no higher object 

 than catering to their merest animal necessities, clothing them in 

 apparel that involves the least possible outlay of time and money. 



Which child is most averse to damaging or soiling its garments, 

 the one clad in ill-fitting and unbecoming costume, notwithstanding 

 it may be a good defence against the inclemencies of the weather, 

 even of costly material, or the one whose cheap but fashionably cut 

 garments are decorated with a bordering of another shade or color, 

 though of no better material than the garment itself? 



How many a little girl has avoided a mud-puddle on her way 

 from school, and consequently a chiding at home, perhaps castiga- 

 tion, by an innate desire to preserve the purity of a bit of embroidery, 

 or tape trimming, and surely this is a cheaper, as well as more 

 agreeable mode oi fencings than railing and withing. 



And is not a trifling outlay in fancy needle work more, satisfiictory 

 to a cultivated mind, than scrubbing and botching 7 or the very 

 botching performed in such a scientific and artistic manner, as to 

 become a source of pride instead of shame, to say nothing of its 

 effect on characters being formed under its influence. To be sure, 

 some vain and frivolous lady, who makes the embellishment of her- 

 self and family the business instead of the pastime of life, may tor- 

 ture our remarks into a vindication of her misapplication of time 

 which should be devoted to higher and better purposes; but your 

 committee are not pledged to furnish brains, we only appeal to them, 

 and "a word to the wise is sufficient." 



Our rugs and mats, also, — manufactured from the remnants of 

 dilapidated and cast off" garments, or the odds and ends of new, are 

 by some considered superfluous articles, but which the prudent and 

 ingenious fabricators assure us is a great saving of dirt, (as indeed 

 they are, in more respects than one.) 



Many a slovenly son and brother has left on the grass plot, or 

 scraper, the fertilizing particles of the compost heap which adhered 

 to his boots, at thought of "mother's new door mat," or, as that is 

 usually of less delicate tint and construction than the carpet and 

 hearth rug, and therefore of less importance in his eyes, bethinks 



