For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School
By: Catherine Esther Beecher
ON DOMESTIC AMUSEMENTS AND SOCIAL DUTIES.
Indefiniteness of Opinion on this Subject. Every Person needs some Recreation. General Rules. How much Time to be given. What Amusements proper. Those should always be avoided, which cause Pain,
or injure the Health, or endanger Life, or interfere with important Duties, or are pernicious in their Tendency. Horse-racing, Circus-riding, Theatres, and Gambling. Dancing, as now conducted,
does not conduce to Health of Body or Mind, but the contrary. Dancing in the Open Air beneficial. Social Benefits of Dancing considered. Ease and Grace of Manners better secured by a System of
Calisthenics. The Writer's Experience. Balls going out of Fashion, among the more refined Circles. Novel-reading. Necessity for Discrimination. Young Persons should be guarded from Novels. Proper
Amusements for Young Persons. Cultivation of Flowers and Fruits. Benefits of the Practice. Music. Children enjoy it. Collections of Shells, Plants, Minerals, &c. Children's Games and Sports. Parents
should join in them. Mechanical Skill of Children to be encouraged. Other Enjoyments. Social Enjoyments not always considered in the List of Duties. Main Object of Life to form Character. Family
Friendship should be preserved. Plan adopted by Families of the Writer's Acquaintance. Kindness to Strangers. Hospitality. Change of Character of Communities in Relation to Hospitality. Hospitality
should be prompt. Strangers should be made to feel at their Ease
