because he works with his hands for his own support. But things are gradually altering in this country, in regard to this matter, and it is becoming more and more honourable to work, and more and more discreditable to be useless and idle.
Yet a great change is to be accomplished before all aristocratic notions are so shaken off, that a man or woman will be honoured for usefulness, good manners, good sense and good principles, without any regard to the kind of work by which a livelihood is earned. When this time comes, if a woman has a refined education, good manners, and good principles, she will be as much honoured and respected as a domestic, as she would be in any other sphere of life.
Another reason why the station of a domestic is not regarded as honourable is, because most persons have wrong ideas about doing good and being useful.
To understand this, you will observe that when ladies have a great deal of money and leisure, they spend the greater part of their time in dressing, visiting, reading, and enjoying
themselves in various ways. And yet if they take one afternoon in a week to go around and visit the poor and sick—if they distribute tracts, and give a very small portion of their income for benevolent purposes, they are spoken of as remarkably useful persons, and are honoured because they do so much good.
But if a woman goes around day after day to help mothers make up clothes for their children, or if a woman works from morning till night in the kitchen, to make a family comfortable, this is not called doing good. Though the sempstress and domestic spend the whole of their time in earning their own support, and at the same time, contribute more than almost any class of persons to the comfort and enjoyment of others, they are not spoken of as persons who are living to do good. But if a woman is supported by the labour of others, and spends the most of her time in occupations that merely gratify herself, and not one tenth part of her time or money, in a way that benefits others, still she is commended and admired as one who is eminent for “doing good.”
Now this is a mistaken mode of estimating
usefulness. Those who are constantly doing something to promote the comfort of others should feel that they are “doing good,” as their daily business; while those who give only odd intervals for the benefit of others, and seek their own pleasure the rest of the time, should feel that they are the least useful part of the community. According to this, when the young ladies of a family, who have wealth, education and leisure, spend most of their time in seeking their own amusement, then those domestics, who toil all day in the kitchen for the comfort of others, are the most useful persons; and if they perform their duties properly, deserve to be the most respected and esteemed.
The last reason why the station of domestics is not regarded as honourable is, that the persons who have been in this station have, ordinarily, been persons destitute of education and good manners. This has been more their misfortune than their fault, and it is a difficulty not easily remedied. But it is very certain that a person who has a good education and good manners, is deserving of more respect, and always will receive more respect, than one
who is ignorant, rude, vulgar and ill-mannered. And if all the domestics in this land were suddenly changed into refined, well bred, well educated persons, you would find that there would be as sudden a change in public feeling, and then the station of a domestic would be regarded as genteel, honourable, and respectable, far more than it now is.