In the introduction to a book of domestic economy printed in 1816, Elizabeth Hammond argues that “domestic knowledge in a female is certainly of more real importance than vain acquirements.” Nor does she limit her theories of education to the differences between the sexes; all people, men and women, should be educated according to their anticipated station in life. Education is now available to persons of small means, which can be very destructive: it is likely to cause them to “imbibe ideas it is impossible for them to support.”
In English and American education there has always been a tug-of-war between the believers in liberal education and the believers in practical education: between those who believe that a knowledge of humanity’s great accomplishments is good in itself and makes a better citizen irrespective of station, and those who believe that education should be practical only, designed to prepare us for the useful labor we are expected to perform in society. Today, with the precipitous drop in humanities students and the withering of liberal education, the question has finally been answered. It has taken two centuries, but Elizabeth Hammond and her allies have won at last.
All persons should anxiously endeavour to discharge the duties of the station they may till, in such a manner as to claim the respect of their compeers; and at the same time exhibit such a line of conduct, as to afford a beneficial example to the younger branches of society, who very properly look up to their seniors for advice united with example; and to such as are desirous of respect, this mode of conduct is a matter of imperious necessity, the neglect of which no excuse can extenuate with any degree of success.
The accomplishments proper for the female character, are not so seriously attended to as formerly, when all persons, whatever might be their rank, were studious to render themselves useful, but now, few indeed are the young women who study useful branches of knowledge, while all of them are well versed in frothy instruction. Yet, notwithstanding this depraved mode of education, domestic occupations should certainly never for one moment be neglected, as such neglect must produce misery, and may, perhaps, ultimately terminate in ruin. At no very distant period, ladies knew but little beyond their own family concerns; now, alas! there are few things of which they know so little as their family concerns. Viewed either way, this is running into extremes, which should be carefully avoided because elegant acquirements may, with some little care, be easily united with useful knowledge, without which they become ridiculous. That this may be done, we have numerous examples, even in the most elevated ranks of society, in which the mistress of a family, possessed of every possible feminine accomplishment, may be frequently seen, superintending her family arrangements, investigating her accounts, instructing her servants, and keeping within the bounds of her husband’s income; by such means, reflecting credit on him, as well as herself.
If such minute attention to domestic concerns reflects honour upon females of elevated rank, at the same time that it is useful to them, how much more therefore must it be beneficial to such as possess contracted incomes, and who can only support an elegant, nay even a neat appearance, by exerting the most rigid economy, and attentively directing their efforts to the due management of their domestic affairs.
A person possessed of large property has no absolute necessity to heed the expenditure of every shilling, because it can be of no serious importance in respect either to benefit or injury, yet this presents no reason why that person should not be commonly attentive to money matters, without which attention the largest income will ultimately fail; but on the contrary, a person in confined circumstances is bound, by every principle of duty, to regard the expenditure of every penny, by which alone he can hope to support the appearance requisite to the character of a gentleman: which appearance is now become the more necessary, because, in this country especially, the distinction of rank, birth, and fortune, are in a great measure abolished, by means of the general diffusion of knowledge; education being now open alike to the prince and the person even of very moderate fortune. In some respects this is too much the case, as many persons of inferior fortune, in consequence of it, imbibe ideas it is impossible for them to support; and yet they have not the fortitude to resist such pernicious ideas, merely because sensual and splendid pleasures are productive of momentary enjoyment, though they ultimately entail sorrow and repentance. Under such imperious circumstances, some distinction should certainly be made in respect to education, observing, at the same time, the various gradations of rank and fortune; so that persons, whose prospects are moderate, should be instructed in useful, rather than ornamental knowledge, by which method much trouble and unavailing regret would be prevented. Their own happiness would be secured, as well as that of persons connected with them, and they would pass through life respected and beloved. But on the contrary, when children are suffered to receive an education unsuited to the sphere of life which they are destined to fill, such an education only renders them miserable, and totally unable to meet such difficulties as may oppose their progress.
I am not alluding to a necessary cultivation of the mind only, but more particularly to the mistaken modes of education still pursued in respect to females, who, in consequence of it, are but too often the idle butterflies of a summer’s day; and who, from being perfectly ignorant of domestic management, are wholly incapable of directing the affairs of a family when they attain the rank of its mistress; by which sad neglect in their youth, they are exposed to severe difficulties, and perhaps to ultimate ruin. Habit is second nature, and where active duties, and strict attention to the minute concerns of a family, are exacted in early years, they will become so necessary a part of the system, that no period of time will afterwards succeed in eradicating them. Consequently, the duty becomes a solemn one to such parents as wish their children to prosper in worldly affairs. But, alas! how rarely do we find such a line of conduct pursued—how very seldom behold a female child educated as she should be! Thus, if we observe what passes around us, we shall frequently notice a little miss, not escaped from the nursery, a proficient in the art of dancing, or an amateur in music, a complete adept in dress, and an able follower of all the idle airs of empty fashion and false conceit; but should we have to search farther, all is a terrible blank; consequently such idle, and certainly useless pursuits, gain an ascendancy over the mind, and govern it through the remaining parts of life, to the total banishment of every useful duty and real accomplishment. The precious time of youth once lost can never be regained, and the impressions then made never eradicated; so that we shall see such a child, as she advances in years, become a perfect slave to her idle caprice, instead of the good wife, affectionate mother, and worthy mistress. That this should be the case is lamentable; but that it is so we may daily, nay hourly, experience.
The grand aim of fashionable parents appears to be, to have their daughters instructed in every idle and extravagant “accomplishment’’ (as they term it), and when this course of education is completed, and the lovely creature ruined for ever, she must then be introduced to the dissipated circles of fashion, where her whole time is passed in a continual enjoyment of false pleasure, and where, from the adulation paid her by the coxcombs of the day, she learns to think herself born for the ornament of the world, to imagine herself a person of consequence, and entitled to universal respect, when at the very moment she is actually an object of sincere pity to every individual possessed of common reflection, and who, consequently, cannot see so lovely a work destroyed for ever without one tear of keen regret.
A girl, thus educated, would imagine domestic duties disgraceful, and on no account would she condescend to meddle with them. Such are the evils of high birth, nor are they less among the lower classes of society, who are anxious to give their children advantages not possessed by themselves, and who consequently educate them in the same manner, and by such conduct produce a kind of amphibious animal, who becomes an object of ridicule to all, and a misery to herself. This may easily be ascertained from actual observation, as we are daily surrounded with such unfortunate misled creatures, who, through the mistaken indulgence of their parents, become lost to themselves and to the world.
Females should be early taught to prefer the society of their homes, to engage themselves in domestic duties, and to avoid every species of idle vanity, to which thousands of them owe their ruin; and, above all things, to consider their parents as their best friends, who are interested only in their welfare; then indeed we might hope to see all as it should be, and to have daily evidence of genuine comfort and happiness. Were females thus instructed, they would soon learn to discriminate between the solid enjoyments of domestic peace, and the fleeting phantoms of delusive pleasure.
It is natural to imagine that when a female marries, she does so from a principle of love. It must surely, therefore, be admitted that her duties then become still more seriously important, because her station is more responsible than it previously was. She may become a mother, and if she executes her duty, she will then have employment enough in the nursing and educating of her offspring; she will then have to superintend the affairs of the man with whose destiny she has united her own; the domestic part of which falls particularly within the sphere of her management, and the duties of which she certainly ought actively to execute, and at the same time to support as neat and elegant an appearance as is consistent with prudent economy, without which even princely fortunes must fail. Such systematic conduct will not fail of its due reward, as her husband will soon discover her merits, and place a proper value on the treasure he possesses in her heart, while her friends and acquaintance will respect her as a model, the upright propriety of whose conduct cannot be reproached even by the malignant voice of jaundiced envy!
It is true that we rarely have the happiness of meeting with such women, but when we do, we are always ready to pay them the tribute of well-earned praise, and to fancy within our own hearts the happiness of that family over which she governs; it is then only that we see woman in her own natural lovely character, and then it is that we become instantly fascinated by her charms, and enslaved by her virtues, from the due exercise of which the entire happiness of man solely depends!
One grand consolation is, that she who desires to please, will seldom fail to do so, and this conviction should of itself be sufficient to stimulate to the attempt, as domestic knowledge in a female is certainly of more real importance than vain acquirements; not that accomplishments, when properly directed, are by any means incompatible with domestic duties; on the contrary, when properly directed, they become intimately combined with them, because they add to the rational enjoyments of that house which should ever be the centre of attraction to the husband, children, and others connected with it; and this is what an ignorant, unsocial, and unaccomplished woman can never render it. It is the abuse of all things from which alone mischief can originate, not from the temperate and proper use of them, when they become extremely beneficial.
It being therefore granted, that the domestic arrangements of a family belong entirely to the female, the table, of course, becomes entitled to no small share of her attention…
——Modern Domestic Cookery, and Useful Receipt Book. By Elizabeth Hammond. London: Dean & Munday, 1816.