An excellent letter appears in the Times of Tuesday last
on the :zeal which the male friends of female education express that women shall, at all events, learn to be good Cooks. The writer, who signs herself "An Old Housekeeper," remarks that -nothing is so important for good cookery as quick observa- tion, a power of correct inference, and good judgment, and that these are powers which are rather more likely to be Lgained by general education than in any special kitchen teaching. -She remarks, however, that nevertheless it may be that such women, even though admirable cooks, may not -always entirely relish the idea of marrying men who regard their cookland housekeeper as their chief attractions. That is a fair hit. But the truth is, that those gentlemen who praise cook- . ing skill so much never do regard it as the chief attraction. Nor are they a bit afraid of educated wives. What they really fear is pedantic wives, who mightinsist on talking paleontology or Greek . philosophy, and they take the knowledge of cookery only as a type of the simplicity they crave. But they would know, if they bad much knowledge of the matter, that good education cleans out pedantry almost before it infuses much real knowledge, and that pedantic housekeeping and paraded kitchenry is much more really formidable in ostentatiously humble wives than the con- ceit of learning in women of true culture.
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