ABSTRACT
I feel sometimes frightened at what I have undertaken.1 I have learnt since the autumn of 1855 many things, and among others that we undertake more than we know when we say 'Leave us alone, we ask no more help from you; we will stand alone, as far as outward help is concerned, the home, the members of it, are ours henceforward.' Before anyone takes that upon himself let him remember—first it is a home not a collection of rooms he has to regulate, it is a number of human beings he has to support, not machines, nor cattle.
