The Mineral argus., 1884-02-21
George Eliot ON Servants.

Servants are rich in intuitions. They
have a vast number of certainties which
are deep by reason of their groundless-
ness. The postman brings a letter for
Maria; she was sure he would-she
didn't know from whom it would come,
and ii you were to knock her down, she
couldn't tell you why; but this morning
when she got out of bed and drew up
the blind and saw the wind blowing the
leaves about, she seemed to see the
postman coming with the letter in his
hand. You make a great mistake il you
suggest certain conditions which might
have given rise to the expectation. She
rejects such low-minded analysis of her
certainty. No. there was no reason
why she should exepct a letter this
morning, more than any other; but so it
was-and it was the same once before
when the dishcover fell and got bruised;
she had said at breakfast something
would happen that day, she knew.
But as to your certainties, for which
you allege arguments, the same Maria
considers them offensive unless they
are to be overcome by her assertion.
if you will not believe that a looking
glass is cloudy and spotty in spite Of
daily diligent rubbing, or that the steel
of all your variously procured stoves
happens to be of 80 peculiar a quality
that it will not ''ta1e"a polish, she
thinks she has a right to feel offended.
II, however, she happens to be in a good
humor, she will prehaps observe, apro-
pos of the steel that at one place where
she lived there was a bright fender With
a sharp edge and the nurse let the child
fall on it and cut herself; and when she
hos told Won oil fbn X - m ~ AZ ~ NJ
tendant on this event, the name of the
doctor who was called in and what he
said, she will feel that she has read
lusted her position as q pollsher OF
stoves. "
On the whole servants are little dis.
posed to think that the opinion of gen.
tlefolks can have any practical value for
them. Our remedies, u methods, our
explanations, are like the drapery and
tailoring we pay so much for; they cor
respond to the supposed scale of our in
come; but servants, for their part get
their stuffs and their views from other
quarters. The cure for a gentle mans
toothache is not likely to suit Sallv's mo-
lar so well as the cure recommended by
the grocer's boy on the authority of his
first cousin, who went about with a blue
handkerchief round his head for weeks
and weeks. And for the probabilities
concerning the dryness of the coming
summer or the guilt of the man last TAX
en- up for murder, the person to be con.
suited with the most Difference is the
laundress who serves very good famil-
les. and whose husband is in the carry
ing line,
The moral of all this is that wise mas-
ters and mistresses will not argue with
their servants, and not give them rea-
sons, will not consult them. A mild yet
firm authority, which vigorously de-
mands that certain things be done with
urging motives or entering into ex-
plantations, is both preferred by the SER
wants themselves, and is the best means
of educating them into any improve
ment of their methods and habits.
Authority and tradition are the chief,
the only safe guides of the unin-
structed-are the chief means of devel-
oping the crude mind, whether childish
or adult. Reason about everything with
your child you make him a monster,
without reverence, without affections.
Reason about things with your servants,
consult them, give them the suffrage,
and you produce no other effect in them
than a sense of anarchy in the house, a
suspicion of ir~resoluteDess in you, the
most opposed to that spirit of order and
prom ptitude which can alone enable
them to fill their places well, and make
their lives respectable.