{"id":9359,"date":"2012-04-02T08:11:13","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T13:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/?p=9359"},"modified":"2012-04-02T08:11:13","modified_gmt":"2012-04-02T13:11:13","slug":"wiw-wisdom-from-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2012\/20120402-9359.htm","title":{"rendered":"WiW: Wisdom from the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently purchased a Kindle (rather a shock to everyone, myself included) and have been doing a bit of browsing of the free books available in Kindle format. <\/p>\n

Many of my favorite classics are available for free, for which I am immensely grateful–but I’ve also enjoyed looking at some books that I otherwise might never have picked up. Books like Mrs. Isabella Beeton’s The Book of Household Management<\/i>. <\/p>\n

I’m not sure exactly when The Book of Household Management<\/i> was written, but it was sometime between 1836 and 1865, since that is the dates of Mrs. Beeton’s life. (Crazy that she only lived to age 29!)<\/p>\n

Some of the advice gets somewhat strange, intended as it was for a totally different age. But some of it rings out with ageless truth.<\/p>\n

“To live well in abundance is the praise of the estate, not of the person.”
\n~Bishop Hall, quoted by Mrs. Isabella Mary Beeton in The Book of Household Management<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is when my resources seem insufficient that I can test and prove good management. It is no credit to me when I can live well with plenty.<\/p>\n

“No man is rich whose expenditure exceeds his means, and no one is poor whose incomings exceed his outgoings.”
\n~Judge Halliburton, quoted by Mrs. Isabella Mary Beeton in The Book of Household Management<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a culture that forever cries out “more, more” and dreams of getting rich, when those around me have nicer clothing and cars and houses, this is a good reminder. Oftentimes, even in material things, I am richer than they. They are enslaved, in debt, in order to obtain their belongings. I have sufficiency and am not indebted.<\/p>\n

“Recreation is intended to the mind as whetting is to the scythe, to sharpen the edge of it, which would otherwise grow dull and blunt. He, therefore, that spends his whole time in recreation is ever whetting, never mowing; his grass may grow and his steed starve; as, contrarily, he that always toils and never recreates, is ever mowing, never whetting, labouring much to little purpose.”
\n~Bishop Hall, quoted by Mrs. Isabella Mary Beeton in The Book of Household Management<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I love this illustration and how it warns against the two extremes that we all are prone to fall into. May I be a sharp blade, put diligently to the task.<\/p>\n

\n

\"The<\/a>Don’t forget to take a look at Barbara H’s<\/a> meme “The Week in Words”, where bloggers collect quotes they’ve read throughout the week.<\/em>
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently purchased a Kindle (rather a shock to everyone, myself included) and have been doing a bit of browsing of the free books available in Kindle format. Many of my favorite classics are available for free, for which I am immensely grateful–but I’ve also enjoyed looking at some books that I otherwise might never … Read more WiW: Wisdom from the Past<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9359"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}