What do you think?
Rate this book
The Duties of a Lady's Maid
"
In order to have your mind suitably impressed with a sense of your dependence on Providence, and your thoughts ever with God, it is not required that you become gloomy, dejected, and melancholy; that you assume demure looks, and speak in a whining tone of affectation. .These will most readily make you. be supposed a hypocrite, though your heart may be single and your faith sincere, and will always expose you to be pointed at with ridicule and scorn. I do not mean by this however, to say, that the opinion of the world ought to regulate your conduct in your spiritual life: far be such a thought from me. I only warn you not to provoke the contempt and scorn of the profane and unbelieving, by peculiarities of behaviour, which are no part of true piety, and are only the characteristics of a base and time-serving hypocrisy. The example and the precepts of the Saviour teach us, that though the persecutions and the ridicule of.the world ought not to make us(...)".
In order to have your mind suitably impressed with a sense of your dependence on Providence, and your thoughts ever with God, it is not required that you become gloomy, dejected, and melancholy; that you assume demure looks, and speak in a whining tone of affectation. .These will most readily make you. be supposed a hypocrite, though your heart may be single and your faith sincere, and will always expose you to be pointed at with ridicule and scorn. I do not mean by this however, to say, that the opinion of the world ought to regulate your conduct in your spiritual life: far be such a thought from me. I only warn you not to provoke the contempt and scorn of the profane and unbelieving, by peculiarities of behaviour, which are no part of true piety, and are only the characteristics of a base and time-serving hypocrisy. The example and the precepts of the Saviour teach us, that though the persecutions and the ridicule of.the world ought not to make us(...)".
187 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 28, 2013
1 person is currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Unknown
506k books3,210 followersBooks can be attributed to "Unknown" when the author or editor (as applicable) is not known and cannot be discovered. If at all possible, list at least one actual author or editor for a book instead of using "Unknown".
Books whose authorship is purposefully withheld should be attributed instead to Anonymous.
Books whose authorship is purposefully withheld should be attributed instead to Anonymous.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 20, 2018
Very interesting look into the world of a lady’s maid.
February 24, 2016
Written anonymously and published in 1825, this guide for ladies' maids is chock full of advice, how-tos, receipts for various items... The author (I will assume she is a woman) seems to believe each of her readers will approach her text from a place of religious duty and an inclination to make herself invisible in the life of her superiors. I cannot fathom the kind of strictly regimented life that these women had ton live, with each hour dedicated to the service of their betters; a lady's maid was to be indispensable but also unseen, never to take pleasure from any moment when her mistress may have need of her, and using her few hours of personal time in study to improve her knowledge and usefulness. It seems to have been a stale type of life, but also one that a lower-class woman during the Georgian period would have considered herself lucky to have had.
October 17, 2021
My thanks to this anonymous author! I learned more about the daily life of this era from this volume than one can learn through a regency classic. Anonymous was well read and had plenty of opinions she was happy to pour into this manuscript, as she could not/would not put a voice to them in her professional life.
Such as:
"We laugh...at the folly of the Chinese ladies, who compress their feet til they are unable to walk, and at the Africans, who flatten their noses as an indispensible requisite to beauty; but we are still farther from Nature, when we imagine that the female chest is not so elegant as we can make it by the confinement of stays; and Nature, accordingly, shows her resentment, by rendering so many of our fashionable ladies who thus encase themselves in the steel and whalebone, deformed either in the chest, the shoulders, or the spine."
This is one of so many gems!
Such as:
"We laugh...at the folly of the Chinese ladies, who compress their feet til they are unable to walk, and at the Africans, who flatten their noses as an indispensible requisite to beauty; but we are still farther from Nature, when we imagine that the female chest is not so elegant as we can make it by the confinement of stays; and Nature, accordingly, shows her resentment, by rendering so many of our fashionable ladies who thus encase themselves in the steel and whalebone, deformed either in the chest, the shoulders, or the spine."
This is one of so many gems!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews