Fire-places and Kitchen Utensils. 431 



steam-dishes of earthen-ware to fit them, every utensil 

 for cooking, by boiling and stewing, might be con- 

 structed of that most cleanly, most elegant, and most 

 wholesome material, earthen-ware. 



I hesitated a long time before I resolved to publish 

 this last observation ; for, however anxious I am to 

 promote useful improvements, and especially such as 

 tend to the preservation of health and the increase of 

 rational enjoyments, it always gives me pain when I 

 recollect how impossible it is to introduce any thing 

 new, however useful it may be to society at large, with- 

 out occasioning a temporary loss or inconvenience to 

 some certain individuals, whose interest it is to preserve 

 the state of things actually existing. 



It certainly requires some courage, and perhaps no 

 small share of enthusiasm, to stand forth the voluntary 

 champion of the public good ; but this is a melancholy 

 reflection, on which I never suffer my mind to dwell. 

 There is no saying what the consequences might be, 

 were we always to sit down before we engage in a 

 laudable undertaking and meditate profoundly upon 

 all the dangers and difficulties that are inseparably 

 connected with it. The most ardent zeal might per- 

 haps be damped and the warmest benevolence dis- 

 couraged. 



But the enterprising seldom regard dangers, and are 

 never dismayed by them ; and they consider difficulties 

 but to see how they are to be overcome. To them 

 activity alone is life, and their glorious reward the 

 consciousness of having done well. Their sleep is 

 sweet when the labours of the day are over ; and they 

 await with placid composure that rest which is to put a 

 final end to all their labours and to all their sufferings. 



