Domestic Economy. 667 



increasing the comforts of the poor, raise also their character by education. 

 The writer in the Monthly Magazine considers education alone as a dan- 

 gerous experiment. " Many insist upon education as a panacea for the dis- 

 orders of Ireland. We deem it a dangerous experiment to leave the cure 

 of its disorders to education alone; for you are only making the line of 

 demarcation between the rich and poor still broader, by rendering the 

 latter still poorer; adding the wants of education to those superinduced by 

 poverty, you fling a new poison into the bitter cup of indigence; you give 

 a new weapon to the enemies of social order." It would be well if the 

 supporters of this opinion would tell us how much is the effect of education, 

 and how much of habit. Educated men at present are for the most part 

 men used to indulgences, which long habit renders wants ; and these wants 

 are attributed to education, which, in truth, alleviates, instead of producing 

 or increasing them. The writer seems to forget, or probably he does not 

 believe, that " knowledge is pleasure as well as power." If education teaches 

 the poor their wants, it will also teach them how to supply them, if that be 

 practicable, or how to endure with a good grace evils which are inevitable. 

 Education will make them acquainted with the nature of the ameliorations 

 of which their nature is susceptible, and enable them justly to appreciate 

 what is done for them by government or society ; it will prevent them from 

 being worked upon by fanaticism ; and will enable them to make known 

 their sufferings to their countrymen and to other nations, and sooner or 

 later to obtain that sympathy, and those ameliorations in their condition, 

 which human nature and the nature of things admit of and require. — Cond. 

 The Mulberry Plantation at Mitchel's Town, near Cork, we regret to 

 learn, has been utterly abandoned, as has that in England, near Slough, by 

 the British Silk Company. The cause assigned is, that the air is too Tumiid 

 for the vigorous health of the insect. — Cond. 



Art. IV. Domestic Economy. 



Variety in Food, — From various experiments it appears that the chyle 

 is of a different quality when produced from different alimentary substances; 

 and as this nutritive fluid has to supply the various textures and juices of 

 the body, differing in composition from each other, may not a chyle, com- 

 posed of these different alimentary materials blended together, be more 

 adapted for the purpose than that fi-om a single substance? It is well 

 known that a successive change of aliments is peculiarly grateful, and, 

 indeed, almost essential to the human appetite, and that it is apt to pall on 

 the repeated and daily use of one particular food ; and that this is not a 

 consequence of over-luxurious corruptions may be fairly inferred from the 

 fact, that graminivorous animals are fond of a change of pasture, and of 

 blending a variety of herbs and grass in their feeding; and birds, too, 

 though one species of food, such as a particular grain, should be in abund- 

 ance before them, delight to have a variety in their meals. 



With regard to the Modes of Cookery, it is almost enough to say that that 

 kind is to be preferred which, while it renders the food sufficiently tender 

 and savoury, so as duly to excite all those organs connected with the diges- 

 tive functions, yet leaves some labour for the stomach itself. On this 

 account the roast beef and plain joints of the English seem, on the whole, 

 preferable even to the best made dishes of the French, which either con- 

 centrate the nourishment too much, or present it in a state too nearly 

 approaching the chyle to which it is to be reduced. {Ed. Rev., Jan. 1828.) 



To make Kitchen Vegetables tender. — When peas, French beans, and 

 similar productions, do not boil easily, it has usually been imputed to 



