Robert Kemp Philp

“ A little concern on her part only proves her love for you, and you may enjoy your triumph without saying a word. Don't evince your weakness either, by complaining of every trifling neglect. What though her knitting and crochet seem to absorb too large a share of her attention; depend upon it, that as her eyes watch the intertwinings of the threads, and the manoeuvres of the needles, she is thinking of the events of byegone times, which entangled your two hearts in the network of love, whose meshes you can neither of you unravel or escape. ”

“ If you would write to any purpose, you must be perfectly free from without, in the first place, and yet more free from within. Give yourself the natural rein; think on no pattern, no patron, no paper, no press, no public; think on nothing, but follow your own impulses. Give yourself as you are, what you are, and how you see it. Everyman sees with his own eyes, or does not see at all. ”

“ You may not win him over at once, but try again. Let one kindness be followed by another, till you have compassed your end. By little and little, great things are completed; and repeated kindness will soften the heart of stone. ”

“ The true art of being agreeable is to appear well pleased with all the company, and rather to seem well entertained with them than to bring entertainment to them. A man thus disposed, perhaps may not have much learning, nor any wit; but if he has common sense and something friendly in his behaviour, it conciliates men's minds more than the brightest parts without this disposition; and when a man of such a turn comes up to old age, he is almost sure to be treated with respect. ”

“ No trait of character is more agreeable in a female than the possession of a sweet temper. Home can never be happy without it. It is like the flowers that spring up in our pathway, reviving and cheering us. Let a man go home at night, wearied and worn by the toils of the day, and how soothing is a word dictated by a good disposition! ”

“ The art of pleasing is, in truth, the very soul of good breeding; for the precise object of the latter is to render us agreeable to all with whom we associate—to make us, at the same time, esteemed and loved. ”

“ This practice, carried to excess as it is in England, is in bad taste. To behold a woman cut in two in the middle, as if she were like a wasp, is as shocking to the eye as it is painful to the imagination. ”

“ Domestic servants, and assistants in business and trade, come most closely and continually into contact with their employers; and they are about them from morning till night, and see them in every phase of character, in every style of humour, in every act of life. How powerful is the force of example! ”

“ Every trade has its tricks and deceptions; those who follow them can deceive you if they please, and they are too apt to do so if you provoke the exercise of their over-reaching talent. Challenge them to a game at "
Catch who can
," by entirely relying on your own judgment, and you will soon find nothing but very long experience can make you equal to the combat of marketing to the utmost advantage. If you think a tradesman has imposed upon you, never use a second word, if the first will not do, nor drop the least hint of an imposition ”

“ This is the true secret of that silent care which preys upon the hearts of many men, and true it is, that when love is least apparent, it is nevertheless the active principle which animates the heart, though fears and disappointments make up a cloud which obscures the warmer element. As above the clouds there is glorious sunshine, while below are showers and gloom, so with the conduct of man—behind the gloom of anxiety is a bright fountain of high and noble feeling. ”

“ Soft words soften the soul—angry words are fuel to the flame of wrath, and make it blaze more freely. Kind words make other people good-natured—cold words freeze people, and hot words scorch them, and bitter words make them bitter, and wrathful words make wrathful. ”

“ Passion is the tempest by which reason is overthrown. Under the effects of passion, man's mind becomes disordered, his face disfigured, his body deformed. A moment's passion has frequently cut off a life's friendship, destroyed a life's hope, embittered a life's peace, and brought unending sorrow and disgrace. ”

“ Carving-knives should be "put in edge" before the dinner commences, for nothing irritates a good carver, or perplexes a bad one, more than a knife which refuses to perform its office; and there is nothing more annoying to the company than to see the carving-knife gliding to and fro over the steel while the dinner is getting cold, and their appetites are being exhausted by delay. ”

“ If he has not read the information, he will hear it all from your lips, and when you have read, he will ask questions in his turn, and, gradually, you will get into as cosy a chat as you ever enjoyed; and you will soon discover that, rightly used, the newspaper is the wife's real friend, for it keeps the husband at home, and supplies capital topics for every-day table-talk. ”

“ All that the most skilful medical attendance—all that love, warm as the glow that fires an angel's bosom, could do, had been done; by day and night, for many long weeks, had ministering spirits, such as a devoted wife; and loving children are, done all within their power to ward off the blow. ”

“ The English, generally speaking, are very deficient in the practice of culinary economy; a French family would live well on what is often wasted in an English kitchen: the bones, dripping, pot-liquor, remains of fish, vegetables, &c., which are too often consigned to the grease-pot or the dust-heap, especially where pigs or fowls are not kept, might, by a very trifling degree of management on the part of the cook, or mistress of a family, be converted into sources of daily support and comfort, at least to some poor pensioner or other, at an expense that even the miser could scarcely grudge. ”

“ The player who scores a game as won when, in fact, it is not won, loses it. A lurch—scoring the whole sixty-one before your adversary has scored thirty-one—is equivalent to a double game, if agreed to previous to the commencement of the game. A card that may be legally played cannot be withdrawn after it has been once thrown face upwards on the table. If a player neglect to score his hand, crib, or any point or points of the game, he cannot score them after the cards are packed or the next card played. The player who throws up his cards and refuses to score, forfeits the game. ”

“ There can be found no higher virtue than the love of truth. The man who deceives others must himself become the victim of morbid distrust. Knowing the deceit of his own heart, and the falsehood of his own tongue, his eyes must be always filled with suspicion, and he must lose the greatest of all happiness—confidence in those who surround him. ”

“ Artificial manners, and such as spring from good taste and refinement, can never be mistaken, and differ as widely as gold and tinsel. How captivating is gentleness of manner derived from true humility, and how faint is every imitation! ”

“ The boiling of bacon is a very simple subject to comment upon; but our main object is to teach common cooks the art of dressing common food in the best manner. Cover a pound of nice streaked bacon with cold water, let it boil gently for three quarters of an hour; take it up, scrape the under side well, and cut off the rind: grate a crust of bread not only on the top, but all over it, as you would ham, put it before the fire for a few minutes, not too long, or it will dry and spoil it. ”

“ Finessing, is the attempt to gain an advantage; thus:—If you have the best and third best card of the suit led you put on the third best, and run the risk of your adversary having the second best; if he has it not, which is two to one against him, you are then certain of gaining a trick. Forcing, is playing the suit of which your partner or adversary has not any, and which in order to win he must trump. Long Trump, the one or more trumps in your hand when all the rest are out. ”

“ If a spider break his thread twenty times, he will mend it again as often. Make up your mind to do a thing, and you will do it. Fear not if a trouble comes upon you; keep up your spirits, though the day be a dark one. If the sun is going down, look up to the stars. If the earth is dark, keep your eye on heaven. With God's promises, a man or a child may be cheerful. ”

“ Woman has always been described as clamouring for the last word, and men, generally, have agreed in attributing this trait to her, and in censuring her for it. This being so it remains for some one of the sex, by an exhibition of noble example, to aid in sweeping away the unpleasant imputation. The wife who will establish the rule of allowing her husband to have the last word, will achieve for herself and her sex a great moral victory! ”

“ The Quality of Vegetables
As to the quality of vegetables, the middle size are preferable to the largest or the smallest; they are more tender, juicy, and full of flavour, just before they are quite full-grown: freshness is their chief value and excellence. The eye easily discovers if they have been kept too long; they soon lose their beauty in all respects.
1092. Freshness of Vegetables
Roots, greens, salads, &c., and the various productions of the garden, when first gathered, are plump and firm, and have a fragrant freshness no art can give them again ”

“ To conduct yourself vulgarly is to offer offence to those who are around you; to bring upon yourself the condemnation of persons of good taste; and to incur the penalty of exclusion from good society. ”

“ This may give rather more trouble—but those we wish to excel in their art must only consider how the processes of it can be most perfectly performed: a cook who has a proper pride and pleasure in her business will make this her maxim and rule on all occasions.
Put your meat into cold water, in the proportion of about a quart of water to a pound of meat; it should be covered with water during the whole of the process of boiling, but not drowned in it; the less water, provided the meat be covered with it, the more savoury will be the meat, and the better will be the broth in every respect. ”

“ What is it makes him so eager in the pursuit of gain—so energetic by day, so sleepless by night—but his love of home, wife, and children, and a dread that their respectability, according to the light in which he has conceived it, may be encroached upon by the strife of existence? ”

“ Should the ball in making its hoop strike another that lies beyond the hoop and then pass through it, the hoop and the hit both count; but, should any part of the ball that is hit have been lying beneath the hoop, the Croquet must be taken, but the hoop does not count. A rover which strikes or is driven by another ball against the winning peg is out of the game, and must be removed from the ground. A player who pegs out a rover by a first hit cannot take Croquet from it, as the ball is out of the game, and he is not entitled to another stroke. ”

“ This is a word, sentence, or verse that reads the same both forwards and backwards—as, madam, level, reviver; live on no evil; love your treasure and treasure your love; you provoked Harry before Harry provoked you; servants respect masters when masters respect servants. ”

“ If anything will sicken and disgust a man, it is the affected, mincing way in which some people choose to talk. It is perfectly nauseous. If these young jackanapes, who screw their words into all manner of diabolical shapes, could only feel how perfectly disgusting they were, it might induce them to drop it. With many, it soon becomes such a confirmed habit that they cannot again be taught to talk in a plain, straightforward, manly way. In the lower order of ladies' boarding-schools, and indeed, too much everywhere, the same sickening, mincing tone is too often found. ”

“ Receipt for obtaining good servants
.—Let them observe in your conduct to others just the qualities and virtues that you would desire they should possess and practise as respects you. Be uniformly kind and gentle. If you reprove, do so with reason and with good temper. Be respectable, and you will be respected by them. Be kind, and you will meet kindness from them. Consider their interests, and they will consider yours. A friend in a servant is no contemptible thing. Be to every servant a friend; and heartless, indeed, will be the servant who does not warm in love to you. ”

“ Should a ball in play be accidentally stopped by the umpire, he places it where he considers that it would have rolled to. Should it be stopped by a player, it will rest with the side opposed to that player to say whether the ball shall remain where it stopped, or be placed by the umpire, or the stroke be taken again. If a ball lies within a mallet's length of the boundary, and is not the playing ball, it must at once be put out three feet at right angles from the boundary; but if it is the playing ball, it may, at the discretion of the player, either be put out or played from where it lies. ”

“ Perhaps the process of roasting stands only second in the rank of excellence in cookery. The process is perfectly sound in its chemical effects upon the food, while the joint is kept so immediately under the eye of the cook, that it must be the fault of that functionary if it does not go to the table in the highest state of perfection. The process of roasting should be commenced very slowly, the meat being kept a good distance from the fire, and gradually brought forward, until it is thoroughly soaked within and browned without. ”