CHAPTER XII.

THE SAME SUBJECT.-CONTINUED.

If

THE art of being well served, is one of no inconsiderable importance; servants must be chosen, who are not insensible to the claims of honor and religion. It is necessary for you to understand the duties which fall to their lot, the time and labor requisite for each particular thing, the manner of doing it well, and the expense necessarily incurred. you are ignorant of household affairs, if, for instance, you know nothing respecting the price and the quantity of sugar, and of other things necessary for the articles that you wish to have prepared, you are in danger of being either the dupe or the tyrant of your domestics.

You must also be able to understand their dispositions, to influence their minds, and to govern this little republic, usually very turbulent, on Christian principles. Authority is doubtless needful; for if persons are not governed by reason, there is the greater necessity that they should be restrained by fear; but since Christian servants are brethren in Christ Jesus, and, as his members, have a claim to your regard, you are under obligation to have recourse to authority only when persuasion fails.

Endeavor then to gain the love of your servants without stooping to any unbecoming familiarity; do not enter into conversation with them; at the same time, do not fear to speak to them occasionally respecting their concerns, with affection, and without haughti

ness.

Let them be secure of finding counsel and sympathy; never reprimand them severely for their faults; do not appear either surprised or discouraged by these, as long as you do not consider them incorrigible ; reason with them gently, and often bear with their

failings in service, that you may be able to convince them by your coolness that you speak without feeling vexed or impatient, and much more for their advantage than for your own. It will not be easy to accustom young persons in the higher rank of life, to this gentle and charitable course of conduct; for the impatience and ardor of youth, together with the false notions instilled into their minds from their birth, lead them to consider domestics as little above the brutes; they believe themselves to be of a different nature from those who wait on them; they imagine that servants were made only for the convenience of their masters. Endeavor to make them sensible how contrary these maxims are to modest views of themselves, and huamnity to their neighbors. Convince them that men were not made merely for the purpose of being served; that it is a brutal error to believe that some are born to gratify the indolence and pride of others; that the distinction of master and servant being established in opposition to the natural equality of

men, we are bound to render the condition of servants as agreeable as possible; that as masters, who have had better instruction than their servants, are full of defects, it is not reasonable to expect that servants should have none, since these have not enjoyed the advantages of education, or of good examples; that, in fine, if servants injure themselves by misconduct, what is ordinarily styled being well served, is still more injurious to masters; for this facility of gratifying themselves in every thing, and of delivering themselves entirely to their desires, tends only to enervate their minds, and to render them ardent and impetuous in pursuit of the slightest gratifications.

It is very useful to accustom daughters early to the management of domestic con- v cerns; give them something to take charge. of, on condition of their rendering an account of it to you. This confidence will charm them; for the young receive very sensible pleasure, when others begin to repose confi

dence in them, and they are permitted to share in the direction of important concerns. We see a fine example of this in queen Margaret; this princess relates, in her memoirs, that the most lively pleasure which she ever felt, was occasioned by her perceiving that the queen her mother began to converse with her, when she was yet very young, as if she had arrived at years of discretion; she was transported with joy at being received into the confidence of the queen, and of her brother, the duke of Anjou, respecting secrets of state; as till then she had known nothing but the sports of children. You can even permit a daughter to fall into some error in such attempts, and thus sacrifice something to the higher interests of her education; show her, in a mild and gentle manner, what she should have said or done to avoid the inconveniences to which she has exposed herself; relate your own past experience, and do not be afraid to tell of similar faults which you yourself committed when young; in this way,