For this would be the same
as wishing that we had not followed the dictates of judgment and
conscience. As this is a world designed for discipline and trial,
untoward events are never to be construed as indications of the
obliquity of our past decisions.
But it is probable that a great portion of the women of this nation
can not secure any such systematic mode of regulating their expenses.
To such, the writer would propose one inquiry: Can not you calculate
how much _time_ and _money_ you spend for what is merely ornamental, and
not necessary, for yourself, your children, and your house? Can not you
compare this with the time and money you spend for intellectual and
benevolent purposes? and will not this show the need of some change? In
making this examination, is not this brief rule, deducible from the
principles before laid down, the one which should regulate you? Every
person does right in spending some portion of time and means in securing
the conveniences and adornments of taste; but the amount should never
exceed what is spent in securing our own moral and intellectual
improvement, nor what is spent in benevolent efforts to supply the
physical and moral wants of our fellow-men.
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