Superphysics
Home Management
9 minutes • 1915 words
Did your wife appear, Ischomachus, to lend a willing ear to what you tried thus earnestly to teach her?
Yes, with promise to pay all attention. Her delight was evident, like some one’s who at length has found a pathway out of difficulties; in proof of which she begged me to lose no time in making the orderly arrangement I had spoken of.
How did you introduce the order she demanded?
First of all, I thought I ought to show her the capacities of our house.
Our house is not decked with ornaments and fretted ceilings. The rooms were built expressly with a view to forming the most apt receptacles for whatever was intended to be put in them, so that the very look of them proclaimed what suited each particular chamber best.
Thus our own bedroom, secure in its position like a stronghold, claimed possession of our choicest carpets, coverlets, and other furniture.
Thus, too, the warm dry rooms would seem to ask for our stock of bread-stuffs; the chill cellar for our wine; the bright and well-lit chambers for whatever works or furniture required light, and so forth. (1) Or, “curious workmanship and paintings.”
Next, I pointed out to her the several dwelling-rooms, all beautifully fitted up for cool in summer and for warmth in winter.
I showed her how the house enjoyed a southern aspect, whence it was plain, in winter it would catch the sunlight and in summer lie in shade.
Then I showed her the women’s apartments, separated from the men’s apartments by a bolted door, (5) whereby nothing from within could be conveyed without clandestinely, nor children born and bred by our domestics without our knowledge and consent (6)—no unimportant matter, since, if the act of rearing children tends to make good servants still more loyally disposed, (7) cohabiting but sharpens ingenuity for mischief in the bad.
When we had gone over all the rooms (he continued), we at once set about distribution our furniture (8) in classes; and we began (he said) by collecting everything we use in offering sacrifice.
After this, we set apart the ornaments and holiday attire of the wife, and the husband’s clothing both for festivals and war; then the bedding used in the women’s apartments, and the bedding used in the men’s apartments; then the women’s shoes and sandals, and the shoes and sandals of the men.
There was one division devoted to arms and armour; another to instruments used for carding wood; another to implements for making bread; another to utensils for cooking condiments; another to utensils for the bath; another connected with the kneading trough; another with the service of the table. All these we assigned to separate places, distinguishing one portion for daily and recurrent use and the rest for high days and holidays. Next we selected and set aside the supplies required for the month’s expenditure; and, under a separate head, (11) we stored away what we computed would be needed for the year.
For in this way there is less chance of failing to note how the supplies are likely to last to the end.
We arranged the different articles of furniture in classes. We then conveyed them to their appropriate places.
We then looked at the various articles needed by our domestics for daily use, such as:
- implements or utensils for making bread
- cooking relishes
- spinning wool
- etc
These we consigned to the care of those who would have to use them. First, we pointed out where they must stow them. Then telling them to return them safe and sound when done with.
As to the other things which we should only use on feast-days, or for the entertainment of guests, or on other like occasions at long intervals, we delivered them one and all to our housekeeper.
Having pointed out to her their proper places, and having numbered and registered the several sets of articles, we explained that it was her business to give out each thing as required; to recollect to whom she gave them; and when she got them back, to restore them severally to the places from which she took them.
In appointing our housekeeper, we had taken every pains to discover some one on whose self-restraint we might depend, not only in the matters of food and wine and sleep, but also in her intercourse with men.
She must besides, to please us, be gifted with no ordinary memory.
She must have sufficient forethought not to incur displeasure through neglect of our interests.
It must be her object to gratify us in this or that, and in return to win esteem and honour at our hands. We set ourselves to teach and train her to feel a kindly disposition towards us, by allowing her to share our joys in the day of gladness, or, if aught unkind befell us, by inviting her to sympathise in our sorrow.
We sought to rouse in her a zeal for our interests, an eagerness to promote the increase of our estate, by making her intelligent of its affairs, and by giving her a share in our successes.
We instilled in her a sense of justice and uprightness, by holding the just in higher honour than the unjust, and by pointing out that the lives of the righteous are richer and less servile than those of the unrighteous; and this was the position in which she found herself installed in our household.
Or, “having taken an inventory of the several sets of things.” Or, “and this was the position in which we presently established her herself.”
I then explained to my wife that all these things would fail unless she took in charge herself to see that the order of each several part was kept.
So I taught her that in every well-constituted city the citizens are not content merely to pass good laws, but they further choose them guardians of the laws, whose function as inspectors is to praise the man whose acts are law-abiding, or to mulct some other who offends against the law.
Accordingly, I bade her believe that she, the mistress, was herself to play the part of guardian of the laws to her whole household, examining whenever it seemed good to her, and passing in review the several chattels, just as the officer in command of a garrison (16) musters and reviews his men.
She must apply her scrutiny and see that everything was well, even as the Senate (17) tests the condition of the Knights and of their horses. (18) Like a queen, she must bestow, according to the power vested in her, praise and honour on the well-deserving, but blame and chastisement on him who stood in need thereof.
I taught her that she must not be annoyed should I seem to be enjoining upon her more trouble than upon any of our domestics with regard to our possessions; pointing out to her that these domestics have only so far a share in their master’s chattels that they must fetch and carry, tend and guard them; nor have they the right to use a single one of them except the master grant it. But to the master himself all things pertain to use as he thinks best.
So I pointed the conclusion: he to whom the greater gain attaches in the preservation of the property or loss in its destruction, is surely he to whom by right belongs the larger measure of attention.
How did it go? Was your wife disposed to learn what you told her?
I thought that by teaching her the need of minding our property, I was imposing a painful task upon her. But it would only be painful if I had neglected her personal concerns!
But it was easy to address her own domestic happiness.
Any honest woman finds it easier to care for her own offspring than to neglect them.
An honest woman might find it pleasanter to care for than to neglect possessions, the very charm of which is that they are hers.
By Hera, your wife has a brave and masculine intelligence.
Yes, Socrates. She showed large-mindedness on her part, as proven in her readiness in listening to my words and carrying out my wishes.
For example, I noticed she was much enamelled with white lead to enhance her white skin. She had rouged herself with alkanet profusely to give more colour to her cheeks. She was wearing high-heeled shoes to seem taller.
Would you love me less if I showed you how our fortune stands exactly?
Or would you prefer that I should try to cheat you with exaggeration, exhibiting false money to you, or sham necklaces?
She said, “Hush, hush! Don’t say such things. I would not love you with my whole heart if you were a scammer.”
We came together for a closer partnership and share in the other’s body.
Would you love me less if I presented myself with vermillion paste and pigments instead of my own flesh?
She repled: “Frankly, it would not please me better to touch paste than your true self.
I would rather see your own ’true flesh colour’ than any pigment. It would let me see your health.”
I too am not pleased with white enamel or with alkanet than with your own natural hue.
The gods have fashioned horses to delight in horses, cattle in cattle, sheep in their fellow sheep, and human beings with the pure and natural human body undefiled. Through deceit, humans might cheat the outside world.
Yet if intimates try to deceive each other, they would be caught eventually.
What was her answer?
From that time, she never again put on makeup or high heels. Instead, she strove to display the natural beauty of her person in its purity.
She did, however, ask me if I could I advise her how she might become not in false show but really fair to look upon?
I told her not to be forever seated like a slave. but, with Heaven’s help, to assume the attitude of a true mistress standing before the loom, and where her knowledge gave her the superiority, bravely to give the aid of her instruction.
If her knowledge failed, bravely try to learn.
I counselled her to oversee the baking woman as she made the bread; to stand beside the housekeeper as she measured out her stores; to go tours of inspection to see if all things were in order as they should be.
This would at once be walking exercise and supervision.
She was an excellent gymnastic, so I recommended her to knead the dough and roll the paste; to shake the coverlets and make the beds; adding, if she trained herself in exercise of this sort she would enjoy her food, grow vigorous in health, and her complexion would in very truth be lovelier.
The very look and aspect of the wife, the mistress, seen in rivalry with that of her attendants, being as she is at once more fair (13) and more beautifully adorned, has an attractive charm, (14) and not the less because her acts are acts of grace, not services enforced.
Whereas your ordinary fine lady, seated in solemn state, would seem to court comparison with painted counterfeits of womanhood.
Even today, my wife is living in a simple style as I taught her then.
