ENGLISH SERVANTS. 315
identifying themselves with those whose comfort they promote, they are happy in their station, and in the respect which attends the faithful discharge of their duties. They consider servitude no mark of disgrace, and sometimes continue with their employers ten, fif teen, or twenty years, or throughout their whole lives. It is beautiful to see them, their countenances so expres sive of contentment with their condition, uniting in the morning and evening devotions of the household, with whom their sympathies have been long amalgamated. The mistress of a family, thus sustained, has opportu nity for the better points of her character to expand, and leisure to modify that of her children, as well as to enjoy the friends who partake of her hospitality.
When I see the quiet dignity of the housekeepers of the Mother-Land, their calm, unruffled reliance, that what ought to be done, will be done at the right time, and well done, and the perfection they are thus enabled to give to their hospitality, it is difficult not to contrast it with our own hurried reception of unexpected guests, and the rapid inquiry of anxious thought, whether their comfort can be compassed without our hastening ab ruptly from their presence, to superintend the culinary department. One remembers, too, the defection which may suddenly take place of all in the shape of assist ants, and the disorder thus introduced into the domes tic sphere, to the inconvenience of the best loved, and cannot but fervently wish for such a correct balance of interests, that those who are nominally our helpers,
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