Wealth is not necessary for comfort.  Luxury requires wealth, but not comfort.  A poor man’s home, moderately supplied with the necessaries of life, presided over by a cleanly, frugal housewife, may contain all the elements of comfortable living.  Comfortlessness is for the most part caused, not so much by the absence of sufficient means, as by the absence of the requisite knowledge of domestic management.

Comfort, it must be admitted, is in a great measure relative.  What is comfort to one man, would be misery to another.  Even the commonest mechanic of this day would consider it miserable to live after the style of the nobles a few centuries ago; to sleep on straw beds, and live in rooms littered with rushes.  William the Conqueror had neither a shirt to his back, nor a pane of glass to his windows.  Queen Elizabeth was one of the first to wear silk stockings.  The Queens before her were stockingless.

Comfort depends as much on persons as on “things.”  It is out of the character and temper of those who govern homes, that the feeling of comfort arises, much more than out of handsome furniture, heated rooms, or household luxuries and conveniences.

Comfortable people are kindly-tempered.  Good temper may be set down as an invariable condition of comfort.  There must be peace, mutual forbearance, mutual help, and a disposition to make the best of everything.  “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.”

Comfortable people are persons of common sense, discretion, prudence, and economy.  They have a natural affinity for honesty and justice, goodness and truth.  They do not run into debt,—­for that is a species of dishonesty.  They live within their means, and lay by something for a rainy day.  They provide for the things of their own household,—­yet they are not wanting in hospitality and benevolence on fitting occasions.  And what they do, is done without ostentation.

Comfortable people do everything in order.  They are systematic, steady, sober, industrious.  They dress comfortably.  They adapt themselves to the season,—­neither shivering in winter, nor perspiring in summer.  They do not toil after a “fashionable appearance.”  They expend more on warm stockings than on gold rings; and prefer healthy, good bedding, to gaudy window-curtains.  Their chairs are solid, not gimcrack.  They will bear sitting upon, though they may not be ornamental.

The organization of the home depends for the most part upon woman.  She is necessarily the manager of every family and household.  How much, therefore, must depend upon her intelligent co-operation!  Man’s life revolves round woman.  She is the sun of his social system.  She is the queen of domestic life.  The comfort of every home mainly depends upon her,—­upon her character, her temper, her power of organization, and her business management.  A man may be economical; but unless there be economy at home, his frugality will be comparatively useless.  “A man cannot thrive,” the proverb says, “unless his wife let him.”