Superphysics
The Management of an Estate
5 minutes • 978 words
There are 2 sorts of people:
- Those who spend large sums on money in building useless houses
- Those who spend far less but furnish it with all they need.
Here is one of the essentials of economy.
Mirroring them are two other sets of persons= The first possessors of furniture of various kinds, which they cannot, however, lay their hands on when the need arises.
They hardly know if they have got all safe and sound or not= whereby they put themselves and their domestics to much mental torture. The others are perhaps less amply, or at any rate not more amply supplied, but they have everything ready at the instant for immediate use. This is because in the first case everything is thrown down where it chanced, whereas those others have everything arranged, each in its appointed place. This implies that everything is orderly arranged, not in the first chance place, but in that to which it naturally belongs.
Yes, the case is to the point, I think, and does involve another economic principle.
What about the condition of domestic slaves?
On the one side you shall see them fettered hard and fast, and yet for ever breaking their chains and running away.
On the other side the slaves are loosed and free to move.. But for all that, they choose to work. They are constant to their masters. Here, I point out another function of economy (4) worth noting.
Take, again, the instance of two farmers engaged in cultivating farms (5) as like as possible.
- The one had never done asserting that agriculture has been his ruin, and is in the depth of despair
- The other has all he needs in abundance – it is acquired by this same agriculture.
Yes, perhaps (6) the former spends both toil and money not simply on what he needs, but on things which cause an injury to house alike and owner.
I mean people pretend that they are farmers. Yet they have not a penny to expend on the real needs of their business.
Yes.
But I think you are far more ridiculous to yourself.
But now let me point out to you another contrast= between certain people whose dealing with horses has brought them to the brink of poverty, and certain others who have found in the same pursuit the road to affluence, (8) and have a right besides to plume themselves upon their gains.
Well, then, I may tell you, I see and know both characters as well as you do; but I do not find myself a whit the more included among those who gain.
You look at them just as you might at the actors in a tragedy or comedy, and with the same intent. Your want to delight the ear and charm the eye, but not to become yourself a poet.
And there you are right enough, no doubt, since you have no desire to become a playright.
But, when circumstances compel you to concern yourself with horsemanship, does it not seem to you a little foolish not to consider how you are to escape being a mere amateur in the matter, especially as the same creatures which are good for use are profitable for sale?
So you want me to be a breeder of young horses?
No. so, no more than I would recommend you to purchase lads and train them up from boyhood as farm-labourers.
But in my opinion there is a certain happy moment of growth which must be seized, alike in man and horse, rich in present service and in future promise.
- Some men treat their wives in such a way that they find in them true helpmates to the joint increase of their estate.
- Some treat them in a way to bring upon themselves disaster.
Should the husband or the wife bear the blame of that?
As a rule, if it goes ill with the sheep, we blame the shepherd. We blame the rider if a horse shows vice.
But in the case of women, supposing the wife to have received instruction from her husband and yet she delights in wrong-doing, the wife can be justly held to blame.
But if he has never tried to teach her the first principles of “fair and noble” conduct, and finds her quite an ignoramus in these matters, surely the husband is to blame.
Is there an one to whom you are more in the habit of entrusting matters of importance than to your wife?
There is no one.
Is there any one with whom you are less in the habit of conversing than with your wife?
Not many.
When you married her, she was quite young, a mere girl—at an age when, as far as seeing and hearing go, she had the smallest acquaintance with the outer world.
Then she should have real knowledge how to speak and act.
I will introduce you to Aspasia. She will explain these matters to you in a far more scientific way than I can.
I believe that a good wife, being as she is the partner in a common estate, must needs be her husband’s counterpoise and counterpart for good; since, if it is through the transactions of the husband, as a rule, that goods of all sorts find their way into the house, yet it is by means of the wife’s economy and thrift that the greater part of the expenditure is checked, and on the successful issue or the mishandling of the same depends the increase or impoverishment of a whole estate.
So with regard to the remaining arts and sciences, I think I can point out to you the ablest performers in each case, if you feel you have any further need of help.
