At the head of this chapter is a sketch of what may be properly called
a Christian house; that is, a house contrived for the express purpose
of enabling every member of a family to labor with the hands for the
common good, and by modes at once healthful, economical, and tasteful.
Of course, much of the instruction conveyed in the following pages is
chiefly applicable to the wants and habits of those living either in
the country or in such suburban vicinities as give space of ground for
healthful outdoor occupation in the family service, although the general
principles of house-building and house-keeping are of necessity
universal in their application--as true in the busy confines of the
city as in the freer and purer quietude of the country. So far as
circumstances can be made to yield the opportunity, it will be assumed
that the family state demands some outdoor labor for all. The
cultivation of flowers to ornament the table and house, of fruits and
vegetables for food, of silk and cotton for clothing, and the care of
horse, cow, and dairy, can be so divided that each and all of the
family, some part of the day, can take exercise in the pure air, under
the magnetic and healthful rays of the sun.
Pages:
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46