Ways and Means ; or, Voices from the Highways and
Hedges. By Isabella Fyvie Mayo. (Religious Tract Society.)—This volume touches at some points the subject dealt with by that which has been just noticed. Generally one may say that a reader may advantageously go to it for his theory, and get his practical details from Mrs. Panton. It must not be understood that the author of Ways and Means is unpractical. We rather mean that she gives us principles. "The House Beautiful," for instance, lays down some very sound principles about furnishing. There are excellent things, too, in "What is Wrong in the Kitchen ?" In fact, there is not a chapter which does not contain admirably sound sense,— touched, indeed, with a feeling of something higher than one commonly connects with the term "sense." One might, had we space, draw up a list of golden maxims and observations that Mrs. Mayo gives us. One must suffice:—" It is quite possible to die of sheer care on an income of thousands a, year, and yet not because its hapless owner is in debt or difficulty, but simply because he has cut his plan of life absolutely as large, though not larger, than his means."
Previous page
