introduction


INTRODUCTION.


The authors of this volume, while they sympathize with every honest
effort to relieve the disabilities and sufferings of their sex, are
confident that the chief cause of these evils is the fact that the
honor and duties of the family state are not duly appreciated, that
women are not trained for these duties as men are trained for their
trades and professions, and that, as the consequence, family labor is
poorly done, poorly paid, and regarded as menial and disgraceful.

To be the nurse of young children, a cook, or a housemaid, is regarded
as the lowest and last resort of poverty, and one which no woman of
culture and position can assume without loss of caste and
respectability.

It is the aim of this volume to elevate both the honor and the
remuneration of all the employments that sustain the many difficult
and sacred duties of the family state, and thus to render each
department of woman's true profession as much desired and respected
as are the most honored professions of men.

When the other sex are to be instructed in law, medicine, or divinity,
they are favored with numerous institutions richly endowed, with
teachers of the highest talents and acquirements, with extensive
libraries, and abundant and costly apparatus. With such advantages
they devote nearly ten of the best years of life to preparing themselves
for their profession; and to secure the public from unqualified members
of these professions, none can enter them until examined by a competent
body, who certify to their due preparation for their duties.

Woman's profession embraces the care and nursing of the body in the
critical periods of infancy and sickness, the training of the human
mind in the most impressible period of childhood, the instruction and
control of servants, and most of the government and economies of the
family state. These duties of woman are as sacred and important as any
ordained to man; and yet no such advantages for preparation have been
accorded to her, nor is there any qualified body to certify the public
that a woman is duly prepared to give proper instruction in her
profession.

This unfortunate want, and also the questions frequently asked
concerning the domestic qualifications of both the authors of this
work, who have formerly written upon such topics, make it needful to
give some account of the advantages they have enjoyed in preparation
for the important office assumed as teachers of woman's domestic duties.

The sister whose name is subscribed is the eldest of nine children by
her own mother, and of four by her step-mother; and having a natural
love for children, she found it a pleasure as well as a duty to aid
in the care of infancy and childhood. At sixteen, she was deprived of
a mother, who was remarkable not only for intelligence and culture,
but for a natural taste and skill in domestic handicraft. Her place
was awhile filled by an aunt remarkable for her habits of neatness and
order, and especially for her economy. She was, in the course of time,
replaced by a stepmother, who had been accustomed to a superior style
of housekeeping, and was an expert in all departments of domestic
administration.

Under these successive housekeepers, the writer learned not only to
perform in the most approved manner all the manual employments of
domestic life, but to honor and enjoy these duties.

At twenty-three, she commenced the institution which ever since has
flourished as "The Hartford Female Seminary," where, at the age of
twelve, the sister now united with her in the authorship of this work
became her pupil, and, after a few years, her associate. The removal
of the family to the West, and failure of health, ended a connection
with the Hartford Seminary, and originated a similar one in Cincinnati,
of which the younger authoress of this work was associate principal
till her marriage.

At this time, the work on _Domestic Economy_, of which this volume
may be called an enlarged edition, although a great portion of it is
entirely new, embodying the latest results of science, was prepared
by the writer as a part of the _Massachusetts School Library_,
and has since been extensively introduced as a text-book into public
schools and higher female seminaries. It was followed by its sequel,
_The Domestic Receipt-Book_, widely circulated by the Harpers in
every State of the Union.

These two works have been entirely remodeled, former topics rewritten,
and many new ones introduced, so as to include all that is properly
embraced in a complete Encyclopedia of Domestic Economy.

In addition to the opportunities mentioned, the elder sister, for many
years, has been studying the causes and the remedies for the decay of
constitution and loss of health so increasingly prevalent among American
women, aiming to promote the establishment of _endowed_ institutions, in
which women shall be properly trained for their profession, as both
housekeepers and health-keepers. What advantages have thus been received
and the results thus obtained will appear in succeeding pages.

During the upward progress of the age, and the advance of a more
enlightened Christianity, the writers of this volume have gained more
elevated views of the true mission of woman--of the dignity and
importance of her distinctive duties, and of the true happiness which
will be the reward of a right appreciation of this mission, and a
proper performance of these duties.

There is at the present time an increasing agitation of the public
mind, evolving many theories and some crude speculations as to woman's
rights and duties. That there is a great social and moral power in her
keeping, which is now seeking expression by organization, is manifest,
and that resulting plans and efforts will involve some mistakes, some
collisions, and some failures, all must expect.

But to intelligent, reflecting, and benevolent women--whose faith rests
on the character and teachings of Jesus Christ--there are great
principles revealed by Him, which in the end will secure the grand
result which He taught and suffered to achieve. It is hoped that in
the following pages these principles will be so exhibited and
illustrated as to aid in securing those rights and advantages which
Christ's religion aims to provide for all, and especially for the most
weak and defenseless of His children.

CATHARINE E. BEECHER.

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