Reasons why the station of a domestic is a desirable one, and superior to that of a sempstress, a shop girl, or a factory girl.

My Friends:

I will now point out some of the reasons for considering your situation in life a desirable one, and far superior in advantages to many employments usually regarded as more respectable.

To understand this properly, we must bear in mind that our happiness, here and hereafter, depends chiefly on the character which we form. A woman that is selfish, irritable, proud, indolent and ambitious, can never be happy. Give her wealth and leisure, and beauty, and high standing in society, and a superior education, and all the comforts and luxuries that wealth secures, and yet she will be discontented and unhappy. She will always find some [70]one richer, or handsomer, or better educated, or more admired than herself. She will always find something about her different from what she wishes, that will make her fretful and irritable. This, with her pride and selfishness, will lead people to dislike and talk against her, so that while she is longing for love and admiration, she will receive dislike and detraction, and this will mortify and vex her. She will be too indolent to find employment to occupy her mind, and thus time will hang heavy, and life will become a burden—a constant scene of disappointment and trouble.

But change this woman’s character, and make her gentle, kind, and obliging to all around her; make her active, industrious, neat and orderly; give her that piety which influences the mind to be self-denying and benevolent to others, contented with our lot, and cheerful and resigned to all that God appoints, and such a woman will be happy in any circumstances.

Let such a one become a domestic, and she will go around, kindly and patiently ministering to the wants of all in the house, keeping [71]every thing comfortable and in order, and giving kind words, and tender sympathy to the troubles of others. Such a one will be loved and respected by all, and will constantly be receiving expressions of good will, esteem and affection. Her time, filled up with useful and benevolent deeds, will glide along, as on angels’ wings; while looking forward to Heaven as her sure and happy home, all the little troubles of life will seem light, and all its comforts will be doubled in value.

If, then, our happiness depends so much on the character we form, when we calculate the advantages of any situation, we should take into account the influence it will have on our character. Now there are some respects in which I think the situation of domestics very favourable to the formation of a good character.

In the first place, it is a situation in which persons form a habit of submitting their will to the will of another, with readiness and cheerfulness. You will always find that children who are never governed, and who therefore never learn to give up their wills readily and cheerfully, generally grow up to be forward, [72]imperious, headstrong and reckless. They go out into a world where nobody will indulge and humour them as their parents have done. On the contrary every body is looking out for their own rights and interests, and none are disposed to put up with their imperious airs and selfish demands. In consequence of this, they are always getting into trouble, always irritated, always discontented. If they had been trained to give up their wills to others cheerfully and readily, in early life, half these troubles would have been escaped.

Besides this, we must remember that both in this life and forever, we have got to learn to be happy in giving up our wills to the Great Maker and Father of all, and the more we are trained to submission of the will, the easier this first and greatest of all duties will become.

A person, then, who goes into a family and agrees, for a suitable compensation, to do the work, under the direction of those who hire, is in a state of constant training, which has a most beneficial tendency in preparing for future life, both here and in another world. Such a person will find it far easier to give up [73]to her fellow creatures and sincerely to pray, “Not my will but thine be done,” than one who never has been subjected to any such control.

It has often and truly been said, that those only know how to command, who have learned to obey. In proof of this, we always find that none make such hard masters, or such severe and unreasonable parents, as those who have never practised the duty of subordination themselves. In this happy country, domestics have as fair a prospect as any class of persons of becoming heads of a family, when others will have to be controlled by them. And nothing so efficiently prepares them for such a statio............