DAUGHTERS 349 



a little study of eighteenth-century literature — above all, 

 Boswell's ' Life of Johnson.' 



The spread of education is often brought forward as a 

 reason for the deterioration of servants. I must put in a 

 protest against this. I never will believe it ! On the 

 contrary, Mill's definition of education will always remain 

 true to me : ' The best employment of all the means 

 which can be made use of for rendering the human mind, 

 to the greatest possible degree, the cause of human 

 happiness.' 



It is essential, for the weU-regulating of a house, that 

 the orders to servants should be given early in the morn- 

 ing. Everything except flower-arranging ought to be got 

 through in an hour. When people complain that house- 

 keeping takes so long, it is either that they are ignorant 

 and undecided, or that they are out of health, and come 

 down very late in the morning, and things get out of 

 order from being left to the servants for several days in 

 the week. 



I fear many young people wiU probably think me 

 priggish and disagreeable if I say that, be a woman ever 

 so delicate, it is far better for her to get up early and see 

 to her work, even if she finds it necessary to take a rest at 

 twelve or three. I am a great believer in early rising, 

 partly because it implies a generally healthy life, and 

 means that there are no large late dinners or late going 

 to bed ; for it is impossible to burn the candle at both ends. 

 I think most women would work best in the morning ; 

 but I quite admit that, owing to the faults of family life, 

 time is seldom entirely her own, except in the privacy 

 of her room, either at night or in the very early morning. 



Some years ago I was asked by a rich woman who 

 had come to London with a view to entertaining, how I 

 did it. She had come prepared to make a regular London 

 list of unknown swells, and was rather surprised when I 



