INTRODUCTION. V 



by a careful housewife, that it is to be 

 known. She it is on whom rest the en- 

 joyments of home. It is on her manage- 

 ment that domestic comfort depends ; it is 

 by her cares that she draws around her 

 family circle those social pleasures which 

 endear it to the heart of every inmate of 

 good feeling ; and the man who does not 

 duly appreciate her efforts for that purpose, 

 assuredly does not merit the smiles with 

 which she cheers him on his return from the 

 anxieties of the day. 



In contemplating a matrimonial engage- 

 ment, the parties dream of little else than 

 love : the gentleman is all gallantry, the 

 lady all smiles and good humour, and they 

 fly off on the wings of delight to spend the 

 honey-moon ; but ere it arrives to the full, 

 they find that love, to be sustained, must be 

 nourished by accompaniments of the solid 

 kind, and if these can be increased without 



